Today, I walked.

Today, my two red shoes and I took a walk.

As I put them on, I felt a prayer of gratitude; for the reality that I not only had two red shoes, but needed two, not just one.

I've been keenly aware of my increased gratitude for my complete and whole body I'm blessed with. I have two strong and working legs and feet to carry me into my adventures like today.

And I choose to use them.

I choose to be thankful for them.

The Commons was beautiful today.

Who can deny the blessing of walking through a park mid-day, surrounded by an easy company of people, yet content to be completely on your own ~

My walk today had a purpose.

I wanted and needed to visit the memorial on Boylston Street.

As you walk, you begin to see signs of what lies ahead. You see the ribbons...

 ... and the vestiges of 'the week' where all of Boston stopped, and watched, and waited.

You see signs like this in windows of stores all along the walk, giving you a sense of belonging to something united, a community, a friendship of strength and encouragement.

And then you realize you're "there",

 where it all happened.

And it seems such a small, innocent place.

You know, or rather you feel and then you know, that you've come upon something. Because there in the middle of a normally bustling street side walk, there's a crowd of people... just standing and looking. 

You seem to instinctively feel the unspoken understanding that this place deserves an almost sacred berth of distance. People stand in a semi-circle to quietly observe and reflect, not directed by officials or officers, just out of the human heart of feeling it is decent to do so.

And if you're like me, you look down and realize where you stand. You recognize that as you stand and ponder the past events, you stand on the now 'clean' side walk where last week the stones were stained in blood.

I pictured the people.

I pictured the news.

I pictured the reality of it all.

I felt almost rooted there. Not knowing what exactly to do, yet not feeling it was appropriate yet to just leave. Then I realized it was never going to feel appropriate to leave, like I'd stayed 'long enough' to pay my respects and I could now get back to whatever I was doing, or wherever I was going.

And you sort of wanna stand and just look --- remember. Like this woman.

The Memorial

 The memorial has grown so big that they relocated it to just a stones throw away to Copley Square, right about where the finish line stands.

 I added my name to the heart of Boston who'd also signed their love and emotion.

It's an emotional and very quiet place to be.

I appreciated that.

I hadn't felt as connected to the events as I wanted or felt like I should feel. I realized through a series of events and thoughts shared among family, that it was because I wasn't connecting or resonating with the fear of the whole event. I had been spared the trauma of being on Boylston that day, and was close but not right in the events of Watertown. 

After today, I realize just how much I HAVE connected with the running, with the human side of the happiness Marathon Monday brings to Bostonians now that I'm 'one of them', and with the love shown at the memorial.

There was a true spirit of love hovering over this little piece of a place. 

On my walk home, I thought of so many things. In all the miles I walked today, I chose to do it in silence; no music. There was enough to remember and think on.

As I came across the bridge near my home, I looked over the rail road tracks of the train I hear each day as I go about my life. I thought of how, for some odd reason, I always love seeing the sun reflect off of them, even if it's not the cleanest or most beautiful sight to look on. And as I passed, I stopped and turned back to finally take a picture I've meant to take for over a year. Because you never know what tomorrow holds. And I realized I'd be forever putting things off till tomorrow until I choose to do them today. 

So today I chose to act; 

To finally do today what I'd wanted to do for a few too many yesterday's, and had told myself I'd do in a few more tomorrows.

I chose to walk, to listen, to cry with others at the memorial, to offer my spirit of gratitude and thoughts of remembrance and reverence, and to really 'see' the world today. 

Today, I walked.

Today, I noticed and felt with gratitude each step I took, for myself, and for those who can't.

Today, I chose to live and to live in mindful gratitude.

AWE

[Disclaimer: This post is exactly 9 weeks late... AWEsome]

I think it was one of those, "Wait, it happened? It actually came together and happened? Fewww"... then fly by the seat of your pants on to the next activity.

Who can't relate, right?

All Winter Extravaganza

An anual event for the YSA of New England.

This was my first 'event' as the coordinator for my new calling.

Enjoy~

Friday night registration & games

The kid we delegated (my new favorite word) games to came up with having a Nerf war. 

Think I would have come up with that idea? No.

Was it awesome? Yes.

Saturday Morning

Breakfast

Had a nice opening service following this, but of course can't photograph that.

One of our sister missionaries was a back up singer for Gladys Knight for many years before her mission. She was our key note speaker. She then performed two numbers.
Beautiful~ both talk and songs. 

Service Project

The DJ turned on old time big band music and it was a really chill causal time for people to serve and mingle. We got nice positive feedback about it.

 Donated to a local hospital, that was actually in such short supply, they donated the funds for us to purchase the fabric and make them blankets!

Activities

A few of the signs that directed people as to where to go. 

We had a workshop speaker drop out the night before, so Jared (my co-chair) had the brilliant idea to host an impromptu testimony meeting after the two workshops (in place of the third). It was pretty touching to hear people bear testimony of how they weren't going to come, decided or were invited last minute to come, and were so grateful they had. Many tears. Jared and I just kept looking at each other out of the corner of our eyes like, "So, it was a success?!" haha. As a leader, you aren't always afforded the luxury of hearing that what you put effort into was meaningful or not to people. So this was a special treat to hear. 

The theme was, "I Know it, I Live it, and I Love it" from sister Dibb's conference talk. The workshop speakers were each given one of the three points of the topic to focus on. They did great jobs, from what little I could tell while popping my head in and out as I monitored the happs. of the event.

 Meals

People were there all day, so we had to feed them. Those put in charge did wonderful jobs of providing filling, appetizing meals in BULK!

Dance!

This is a shot of a mini dance-off competition we had.

Thumbs UP!

(And apparently farewell. Jared is engaged!! so I'll be getting a new co-chair. If it were for any other reason, I'd be ticked. But as it is, it's just so reassuring to see someone actually have success in that area, that I just can't fault him. It was fun while it lasted my friend)

4-15-13

Yesterday was a sad day for Boston. I'm so grateful I was home safe from the danger, and that my friends have all been accounted for in safety as well. Just wanted to add my sadness for the end of a beautiful day at an event I've come to love since living in this beautiful city of Boston. Prayers have been in my heart and on my lips for the families of those injured, frightened, and aching for understanding. There are things we won't understand as mortals in this life. We can only trust in the mercy and support from our God and our Savior for a peace we won't find anywhere else. 

"Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

Lives were taken, people were changed.

Remember

***

Sugaring

Yesterday I took a day trip with Mel and Kristin to NH. We went to Parker's Maple Barn to learn all about tapping Maple trees. I put this in my calendar a full year ago, since I missed the season last year by not knowing about it in time. (There are so many neat things in New England you can't hit them all in a year.) So, come this year I told Mel, "We are doing this in March!" She called me a week ago and off we went. As it turns out, this weekend was their peak "Sugaring Season"! 

We started with a tour. Here's what I learned:

The Business:

-- Years ago, a man named Ray Parker began tapping his trees for sap. He eventually spread his business by asking his neighbors if he could tap their trees in exchange for free maple syrup. He would do all the work, he just needed more trees. Eventually he was tapping over about 5,000 trees. That's a huge business.

-- It takes about 40 gallons of sap to yield 1 gallon of syrup. Lots of work for minimal reward (Quantity that is. Their fresh syrup was definitely quality)

Tapping:

-- To properly tap a tree, all you need is a spiel and good weather {warm days and freezing nights} February to April is the approximate season span, with the middle of March the season's peak.

-- If you tap a tree too late in the season, the sap will yield bitter syrup called 'Buddy's syrup'. I asked if there was a way to tell the syrup would be bitter before you went through all the trouble of cooking it down. Nope. Just have to know the season and 'read' the weather. 

-- Different trees produce different types of sap/syrup. I suppose that's intuitive. Maple trees are the sweetest because of the high sugar content of the sap. 

The Sap:

-- The sap looks a lot like dirty water when it comes from the tree. It's clear-ish and very thin.

-- Leaves are what make the sugar in the sap during summer time. 

-- The more leaves on a tree, the sweeter the sap in the sugaring season.

-- Trees get sweeter as they get older because they have more limbs and, therefore, more leaves.

-- Sap is found in the outer 2 inches or so of the tree bark, so you only have to 'tap' into the tree with the spiel that far to extract the sap. 

-- A good sugar content of a tree's sap is around 3 or 4%. Seems low, but that's nature's chemistry! The higher the % of sugar in the sap, the more syrup a bucket of sap will yield. For example, if a bucket on one tree has sap with a 2% sugar content, and another tree gives you a bucket with sap having a 4% sugar content, the 4% bucket will yield roughly twice as much syrup using the same amount of sap after the cooking process is complete. 

 The Syrup:

-- It must be boiled for many hours to evaporate off all the water. When it's complete, it has a 67% sugar concentration. They measure this with a hydrometer and a small sample of syrup.

-- Syrup is the color it is (brown-like amber) because it comes from ground water the tree has absorbed. Duh! But I'd never thought of it. I think I always assumed it was artificially colored like everything else in this world~

-- It's very cloudy and must be filtered and graded. 

-- All sap from the same type of tree will have the same flavor, just different strengths and colors.

-- Strengths and colors are derived from varying sugar concentrations and how long it has been boiled.

-- The lower he sugar concentration, the longer the sap must be boiled. The longer it's boiled... the darker the syrup.

-- Typical boiling range is from 6-20 hours. 

-- The darker the syrup, the worse the grade (A, B, or C) Grade B is good/fine for cooking.

Fun Facts:

 --  Imitation maple flavoring always tastes a little off because... Nobody knows the correct or exact maple sugar chemistry. It seems to be nature's secret, which, I love~ 

-- After the official tour, we three girls got a private brief tour from the owner {below, feeding the fire}

Kristin then asked if she could feed the fire boiling he sap, and he was like, "Sure!" 

He took our photo, and we chatted by the fire about how he came to own the business, how the barn on site was restored and now functions as a restaurant, and just generally what life and responsibilities are like to own a maple sugar tree-tapping company :) 

... and yes... we DID then go promptly to the barn and have homemade pancakes DRENCHED with fresh maple syrup. It had to be done.

If I have some how failed to convince anyone not living on the East that living here is anything but amazing... then please let me know. I'll try a little harder to keep showing just how great it is out here...because it seriously is. There's so much to do!

And next time you buy syrup, try looking to see where its made. I recommend Parker's~