Twelve Months of Miracles (Ch. 3)

On 30 October 2018, I posted chapter two of "... Miracles", promising another chapter, "to be continued" in Roseville, Michigan.

As our two-month assignment in the mission office ended, Sister Cannon and I were assigned by the mission president to the historic Roseville Ward (congregation), centered northeast of Detroit.  Throughout November, we commuted a long distance every day.  The first of December, we were blessed with relocation to live near the meetinghouse, which is centrally located in that large area of missionary service (ten cities).  Most members of our "Michigan Family", as we love to call them, live within the Roseville Ward boundaries.

The holiday season was especially sweet, presenting unlimited opportunities for service, helping people come closer to the Savior Jesus Christ.  The young missionaries and we seniors saw daily miracles!  That's what Christmas is about now, as it was then.

Let us all help "Light the World"!

(To be continued.)

Bishops' Storehouse and Home Storage Center
in Michigan, serving those in need
(a rare selfie of Elder Cannon)

three sister missionaries in Roseville, 6 January 2018
(a special day in the Cannon Family and for others)

Holiday Homonyms Too

With my laptop running, having emailed some missionaries on their preparation day, I thought of repeating this post (slightly simplified) from Tuesday, November 30, 2010:

We got over Cyber Monday --what a rush! -- [folks] shopped without going out in the cold or out on a limb (my credit cards were hidden away, fortunately.)  The offerings were incredibly generous; and I’m glad sales soared 19.4% over last year, to boost our economy.

This morning my second thought was of holiday homonyms.  Last week Kay and I happened to land on an educational TV channel conducting an English class all about homonyms.  Imagine the thrill of finding something worth watching, for a change!

homonym [noun]
"two words are homonyms if they are pronounced or spelled the same way but have different meanings"  – www.whitesmoke.com

Before I let you go find some better ones on your own, here are a few examples my MS spellchecker failed to catch, plus one that’s spelled correctly in context:

Christmas is hear! Bee of good cheer!

Their must have been some magic ...

... and a partridge in a pare tree.

Christmas present is here to stay.

May yore daze be merry and bright, ...
... with every Christmas card I right.

Wishing you happy holidays!  Have fun with family and friends!

lights on Temple Square, Salt Lake City, 2 December 2018

Michigander children with Santa at ward party 2017
photo by Sister Kay Cannon, who loves those little ones

Life, a Continuum

When you wake up on your birthday, do you feel a year older ... or just one day older?  The latter with me.  The days of our lives (not to recall the endless soap opera following “triumphs and tragedies” in Salem) are a continuum, as I see them.  In reality, life goes on as a continuous sequence ... forever.

Of course, “on the other side ...”, moving forward (naturally not backward), what we mortals call days ... must be different.  It will be exciting and enlightening to experience that part of the eternal continuum with our Kay when we get there.

sunset at Cannon Beach and travel companion
– photo by Kay Cannon, 2 August 2012

pondering life and death of those who served –
Sister Cannon in Michigan, 21 December 2017

anticipating Michigan spring, 20 January 2018

Tuesday with Kay's Cannon Beach

We've been there, done that, and loved every minute of it!  Each time we visited Cannon Beach, my sweetheart Kay and I anticipated a new experience; and we were never disappointed.

Enjoying the scenery along the way to the Oregon Coast was always part of the pleasure.  If you fly to Portland, you miss out.  While driving along the Columbia River Gorge, we always stopped at Multnomah Falls and took a short hike -- spectacular!

Arriving at the town of Cannon Beach, we looked for a place to stay, usually not having a reservation.  "Good fortune smiled" on us every time.  Then we visited our favorite focal point:
"Haystack Rock is one of Oregon's most recognizable landmarks, home to colorful tide pools and diverse bird life.  It rises 235 feet from the edge of the shoreline.  At low tide, you can walk right up to it and find colorful sea stars and other fascinating tidepool creatures in its intertidal area.  ... [and it's] a great bird watching location year-round."  -- 2014 Cannon Beach Magazine

It was especially a great getaway for our Kay, who needed to unwind from teaching high school.  A spiritual as well as physical renewal she so deserved. In my mind, with forever-sweet memories, it will always be Kay's Cannon Beach.

photo from 2014 Cannon Beach Magazine

Turkey en route to beach

Thanksgiving was different for Kay and me one year.  Denny's restaurant in Pendleton provided our turkey dinner on Thanksgiving Day, en route to Cannon Beach, Oregon.  The year was ... (need to look that up).  I was excited to find out they were serving second helpings at no charge, so it was effectively all I could eat and more than she wanted.  We missed family and Kay's yam-apple casserole.

That restaurant was not a traditional setting for the holiday, but the anticipation of reaching our destination made up the difference.

view of Cannon Beach (farthest away) from Ecola Park, Oregon

Smart Gratitude Too

In a heavy old envelope I had labeled “SMART PHILOSOPHY” was his handwritten, monthly message for November 1988, teaching us and other friends to take the season seriously.  Filed with it was the two-page transcription of “Count Your Many Blessings One by One”.  Our pioneer neighbor, Rowland Smart, did not skimp on words like I usually do.  So I share excerpts to set the table for this Thanksgiving, leaving the rest to your imagination.
(Previously posted November 3, 2013.)

“Because it is November, we all think of Thanksgiving and look forward to that feast we hope to have …  We all feel gratitude to God for the bountiful year He has made possible for us, and give thanks for our health and for life in this beautiful world He created for us.”

“I can’t help thinking of a poor old raggedy man I once saw who lived up Price Canyon just out of Castle Gate [a mining ghost town in eastern Utah].  I was patrolling one of the Utah Power & Light high-voltage transmission lines.  This line went through a dense thicket of willow brush.  …  I heard a man talking.  I looked up and saw this old, sad, downtrodden man.  He was using an explosive powder box for a chair, and had made himself a crude table … between two cottonwood trees.  There he had some garbage he had gathered during the night at Helper, Utah.  He had it set on this table on an old tin plate with a sheet of newspaper for a table cloth.  …  He had a bushy grey beard hanging down nearly to the table.  Then I stopped as I realized he was praying and thanking his Father in Heaven for this food he was about to eat.  I waited till he had finished his prayer.  I went back up the trail, then started to whistle a tune as I came back around the path, so as not to startle him.  He had merry twinkling eyes that showed thankfulness and contentment.  …  He said, “I ain’t got much, Son, but you’re welcome to share it with me.”  I thanked him and sat chatting with him for quite a while. [Rowley was always good at that.]  I know he was well educated, for he used better English and better manners than most of us do.  He was just down on his luck, an old man with no one wanting him around.  …  I told him I must go, for I was to meet the man who would be waiting for me where the line crossed the road.  He put out his big hard-working hand of yester years to say goodbye.  …  in his struggle for one more day as a free man …  He smiled …”

“It was then as I walked along that lonely trail that I felt gratitude for what an easy life God had made possible for me to have.  I thought as I walked along this stony rough mountain path that life is like a trail.  Some places along this trail are smooth; others are rough and steep, and hard to climb.  …  I guess it is God’s way to test us.  He loves us all and we are His children, and I know He expects us to be good to one another …”

“Remember this Thanksgiving how blessed and lucky you are; and when you pray to God over the feast you’re going to eat, pause for a moment and think of the people in the world …”

Kay's photo of dear friends at community program

in historic Kaysville Tabernacle, 26 November 2016

Time for Thanksgiving

One week from today we celebrate Thanksgiving with a family gathering, prayer, song, and ... oh, yes ... good cooking!  It's a holiday commercially recognized only with promotion of food, but spiritually honored with deep gratitude for blessings from God.

Looking back at past gatherings, I wish more pictures were immediately available to share.  Maybe some members will find theirs during the next seven days and enjoy reminiscing.  Family history!

May God bless us, dear friends and family, with a deepened sense of gratitude during the coming special days.

preview of Cannon Family Thanksgiving

gathering and feast next week

with a favorite: Kay's yam-apple casserole
(Notice in corner, she's watching over family.)

Kay's Thanksgiving decoration, 24 Nov 2011

on our historic dining table in Layton, Utah

our frontier neighbor's squash (a gift)

with twin amazement, 13 November 2011