It has just occurred to me this week that I only have 204 bones in my body now. I know that amputees have less than most of us, but these two bones have come out of my left hand . . . one at a time, over a period of 7 years. Taking the second bone out (the Pisiform) was such a rare operation that the nurses and admitting staff didn't even recognize what the doctor would be removing.
Both palms up together--they look almost the same.
From the back, its a little easier to see that something is different.
The scar is not all that noticeable.
Good news . . . The operation was quick and immediately took care of the sharp pain that had been radiating from the lower left corner of my left hand palm up through my fingers and down the length of my arm. The doctor told me that after he opened my hand up, he found the bone--and looked for the cartlige that should have surrounded it. There was nothing there. So that's why it hurt--bone on muscle and nerves. Nice to have that taken care of.
Bad news . . . I did have an allergic reaction to something that got on my skin while the doctor was putting on the partial cast and bandages. THAT event caused horrible itching--to the point that I tore off the bandages after only two days . . . to find skin covered with a rough, raised, angry rash that ITCHED. Have I mentioned that it itched? I would rather hurt than itch. Much rather hurt than itch.
It's all good now, though, and so two weeks after the operation, I am left with a small red scar that is fading slowly. I can played the piano a yesterday . . . lots of weak muscles in a single hand. I am typing with two hands right now, though, and am quite pleased with my efforts.
Better news, I got to give a talk last Sunday in Sacrament Meeting (one of my FAVORITE things to do) and I talked about the power of words. I'll add a copy of the talk before I sign off tonight. Time was short and so I cut my delivery to just 10 minutes--Brent tells me 12 minutes with my testimony at the end. Pretty good. I'm getting better at judging how much time it takes me to present.
WORDS HAVE POWER
SACRAMENT MEETING TALK 24 June 2012
Words have power, more than we can know
Words we say to others, land in the
heart and grow.
By words, the earth created, By words, the stars are paired
In words we hear eternity, by
words our hearts are shared.
I would like to share with you my testimony of the power of
words.
As I began to read the Book of Mormon this year, I added
another key to look for. Every
time I read w-o-r-d, I
mark it. My husband, Brent, has
often pointed out that every project I undertake becomes a vehicle for
language. I paint the alphabet; I
work for hours on cards to send and give; I have amassed literally thousands of
pages of journal, essay, and poetry; one of my recent projects was a book made
up of photos—each labeled with one word—trucks, cars, mom, dad, sister, trains,
numbers and letters. My one “real”
paying job was teaching composition and literature to college students.
I am charmed by the magic of speech. Odd sounds and discrete packets of
vowels combine to make it possible for my son Nathan to tell a joke; for my
grandson Jon to tell me “I wuv you, Gama Kaolin! Tank you for ta red ca’!” when we Skype; for Brent to leave
a message that it has been a really long day at work and he is really looking
forward to coming home to me.
Words have power, more than we can know
Words we say to others, land in the
heart and grow.
Will they bloom, sustaining life?
or will they root and rot?
Will I be traitor-coward or be the
hero sought.
Words have made all the difference in my life. I remember a time when I was
about 8 years old. It was an early
Saturday morning and I, my two younger sisters and two younger brothers had
been assigned chores to do. I
happened to get the easy ones:
vacuum and dust the living room.
When I finished, I stayed in the living room and sat at the piano. I began to practice my assigned songs
with great vigor and volume. About
5 minutes into this performance, my dad came in to the living room and sat down
next to me on the piano bench. He
waited until I had finished the piece that I was playing and then put his arm
around my shoulders. “I’m glad
that you have finished your work and are now practicing for your piano lesson,
but the rest of us are still working.
Would you please come and help us so we can get the house clean faster?”
There was no acrimony; he didn’t yell from another room,
“Why are you fooling around playing the piano! Get in here so we can finish cleaning the house!”
My father’s kind words have stayed with, and become a part
of me—a part that has bloomed.
Because of those words, I have tried to raise my children with the same
respect and honour shown to me those 47 years ago.
Words have power to change lives.
Words have power, more than we can know
Words we say to others, land in the
heart and grow.
Will they bloom, sustaining life?
or will they root and rot?
Will I be traitor-coward or be the
hero sought?
When I was in college, I took ballet lessons at BYU. We met in an old church building, off
campus with echoing halls and warm, wood floors. Our teacher made us work hard, but one morning, with 15
minutes of class left, we begged her to let us try some “really fancy
stuff.” She agreed and showed us a
passage that went across the room.
She started with simple jumps and turns. We did our best to be her perfect shadows. Then she asked each of us to do our own
combination—to let everyone else see us dance. I have an idea of what steps I did, for I had done this
hundred of times before in empty gymnasiums and down long, quiet hallways. I just let my heart loose and
danced. My moment was over. Class ended.
As I was standing outside, waiting for the bus to take me
back to campus, one of the other dancers stood beside me for a moment. “You dance so beautifully.” she said. “I love to watch you dance.” All I could do was say thank you before
she turned and walked down the street.
Those words, blossoming still in my soul, sustained me
when I was morning sick, or too depressed to look at myself in the mirror, or
30 pounds overweight because of medicines I was taking, wire- thin from a
sickness that no one could name.
No matter what I was at that point, I was, and always would be, a
beautiful dancer.
Words have power, more than we can know
Words we say to others, land in the
heart and grow.
Will they bloom, sustaining life?
or will they root and rot?
Will I be traitor-coward or be the
hero sought.
The words we use change those around us. An angry Sunday School teacher once
took a noisy student out of class and told him to “never come back.” And he didn’t. He married and had a family and they
stayed away with him. Forty years
later his Bishop visited him and his family and listened to the man’s
story. Bishop Wirthlin apologized
for those words. He then did his
best to convince the man that his apology was real. Over time, wounds healed and the family returned, gaining
the blessings of the Gospel in their home. (Elder Wirthlin, April 2005 General
Conference)
Never come back. Three words that could have kept a family from having so
much more than they deserved.
Words have power, more than we can know
Words we say to others, land in the
heart and grow.
By words, the earth created, By words, the stars are paired
In words we hear eternity, by
words our hearts are shared.
One of the most evocative events in the Book of Mormon
happened when Alma the younger was converted to the Gospel. As with Paul in the New Testament, it
took divine intervention to help Alma the younger to repent. He relates his conversion story to his
own sons:
6 . . . I went about with the
sons of Mosiah, seeking to adestroy
the church of God; but behold, God sent his holy angel to stop us by the way.
7 And behold, he spake unto
us, as it were the voice of thunder, . . . and we all fell to the earth, for
the bfear of the Lord came upon us.
8 But behold, the voice said
unto me: Arise. And I arose and stood up, and beheld the angel.
9 And he said unto me: If thou
wilt of thyself be destroyed, seek no more to destroy the church of God.
11 And the angel spake more
things unto me, . . . , but I did anot
hear them; for when I heard the words—If thou wilt be destroyed of thyself,
seek no more to destroy the church of God—I was struck with such great fear . .
. that I fell to the earth and I did hear no more.
13 Yea, I did remember all my
sins and iniquities, for which I was atormented
with the bpains of hell; . . .
15 Oh, thought I, that I acould
be banished and become extinct both soul and body, that I might not be brought
to stand in the presence of my God, to be judged of my bdeeds.
16 And now, for three days and
for three nights was I racked, even with the apains
of a bdamned
soul.
17 And it came to pass that as
I was thus aracked
with torment, . . . behold, I dremembered
also to have heard my father prophesy unto the people concerning the coming of
one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world.
18 Now, as my mind caught hold
upon . . . [these words], I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, ahave
mercy on me. . . .
19 And now, behold, when I
thought this, I could remember my apains bno
more; . . . .
20 And oh, what ajoy,
and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as
exceeding as was my pain!
Mosiah 36
Alma’s belief in the words of his father saved him,
literally, from “the pains of a damned soul.”
Words have power, more than we can know
Words we say to others, land in the
heart and grow.
By words, the earth created, By words, the stars are paired
In words we hear eternity, by
words our hearts are shared.
One of the most thought-provoking, joyous places on this
Earth is the temple—where words help me learn better my relationship to
Heavenly Father and how to become more like Him. Brent and I were married in the temple 30 years ago. Our words bound us to each other and to
the Lord in an eternal family.
This promise has sustained us when we were just the two of us together
in school, when we didn’t have enough money, when we didn’t have enough time, through
job changes and moves to different homes, later, when my mother died, and each
time I’ve been sick.
I am able to enter the temple—I am able to renew my
covenants with the Lord—temples exist upon this earth–because of the words that
a teenage Joseph Smith read in the Bible.
Where Joseph and his family lived, there was “an unusual
excitement on the subject of religion.(5)
“So great was the confusion and strife among the different
denominations, that it was impossible” (7) for him to know who was wrong and
who was right. He read in the
Bible, James 1:5
If any of you lack bwisdom,
let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and
it shall be given him. (11)
He “reflected on it again and
again, knowing that if any person needed bwisdom
from God, I did; . . .
13 At length [he] came to the
conclusion that I must . . . do as
James directs, that is, ask of God. . . .
14 So, . . . I retired to the awoods .
. . . . It was the first time in my life that I had . . . made the attempt to cpray dvocally.
15 After I had retired to the
place where I had previously designed to go, . . I kneeled down and began to
offer up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when
immediately I was aseized
upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing
influence over me as to bind my tongue . . . it seemed to me . . . as if I were doomed to sudden
destruction.
16 But, exerting all my powers
to acall upon God to deliver me out
of the power of this enemy . . . , and at the very moment when I was ready to
sink into bdespair .
. .I saw a pillar of clight
exactly over my head, above the brightness of the dsun,
which descended gradually until it fell upon me.
17 It no sooner appeared than
I found myself adelivered
from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I bsaw
two cPersonages,
whose brightness and dglory
defy all description, estanding
above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said,
pointing to the other—This is My fBeloved gSon.
Hear Him!
I worship God, and revere Joseph Smith as a prophet who
restored the full Church of Jesus Christ to the earth. Guided by the words of James, he heard
the voice of our Heavenly Father and listened to the words spoken by Jesus
Christ.
Words can change history.
Words can change eternity.
Words have power, more than we can know
Words we say to others, land in the
heart and grow.
By words, the earth created, By words, the stars are paired
In words we hear eternity, by
words our hearts are shared.
