Sophie's Story

     Lent is usually the time to focus on repentance seeking forgiveness from God.  I've subscribed to a couple of Lenten meditations. One of them mentioned that along for asking forgiveness from God, it is a good time to ask for forgiveness from others and to forgive those you haven't yet.     I took an opportunity to write a letter asking for forgiveness from the Relief Society president that I served with until we were released about six months ago.  She responded with a letter essentially accepting my apology, a great relief to me. It also occurred to me that should also take care of another piece of unfinished business. I needed to forgive, truly forgive, the boys that bullied me in high school. Some of you may think that taking more than 36 years to forgive something is a bit too long and maybe it is. For years I thought I'd forgiven them and moved on, but what I really did was just put it in a mental box and put the box on a shelf. Every once in awhile something woul

      I tend to get myself in trouble when I compare my cats to children. For the record I am well aware they are cats, not children. I do not dress them up, except for the occasional costume and I do not hold birthday parties for them. (although they do get a special meal on their birthdays and on holidays.)    Like children they all have different personalities and they like different things. Barnaby likes sparkle balls. Willow prefers spring toys. Scamp liked toys with feathers. Colby was a big fan of the light chaser. Nim loved all food especially treats. Ary needed at least 20 minutes of cuddle time every day and would let me know if I had forgotten.    Willow and Barnaby are nearly a year old now and it's been fun watching them grow and develop. I had always thought that Willow was going to be the alpha cat, but it looks like Barnaby, who is a gentle loving cat, has taken that spot. I'm surprised by this as Willow tended to be a bit wild and aggressive. Maybe it has to do

     I gave my mother a set of watercolour paints, a drawing tablet and a kid's book on how to draw. A few weeks ago she started using the watercolour paints instead of coloured pencils in her colouring books. Since she goes through the child's set of paints so quickly, my Dad got her a set of waterbased acrylic paint to use. C bought her an inexpensive set of brushes.    Usually when I visit Mom, we work on a paint by numbers kit. Last week I wanted to play with Mom's paints. Her set has some very bright colours. I took a wide brush and dipped into the hot pink paint. I started painting wavy streaks on the paper in a sort of radial fashion. I likes the way the the colour faded as I moved the brush along. I did this with purple, blue and a little yellow. In the space where my rays of paint started I painted little dots that were the same colours as the rays.    Once I got done with it I looked at it. I liked it. It was pretty.     Then I attempted to draw a butterfly. I loo

   It's not often that I leave work feeling really proud of who I am and what I do. Most of my working days are good, a few are not so good and some days are just plain wonderful.      A doctor from the local clinic sent over a prescription for an antibiotic oral liquid that I don't have in stock. Not many pharmacies carry it because this particular antibiotic is generally not given to younger children due to side effects.    Before I had a chance to call the doctor, a man with his son came in. They wanted to know if the prescription was ready. I explained to them what was going on and told the man that I would call the doctor for an alternate. While I was on hold waiting for a nurse, I looked at the prescription. I realized that it was for one dose. I did a little math and discovered that there was a capsule that could be used. If the child couldn't swallow the capsule, it could be opened and put on some sort of soft food, like applesauce. As long as it was put in non dair

      After I was released as a counselor in Relief Society, I was asked to be one of the women who teach at Relief Society Sunday meetings.  I was happy about that request because teaching is something I like to do and it fits in much better with my schedule.    The lessons we teach are taking from talks given by church leaders at the General Conferences which are held twice a year. This morning I realized that I would be teaching in a couple weeks and that I should listen to the talk I chose so I could begin to plan my lesson.    A few minutes into the talk, I wondered why I had chosen it. It was about discrimination and the need to treat all people with dignity and kindness. Clearly I had not put any thought into choosing this lesson. What could I, a white woman of a certain amount of privilege, teach a class of other white women with as much or more privilege? What would the few women of minority cultures think of my teaching this lesson? Clearly I have no credibility on this subje

     One of the things I have decided to do this Lenten season (the time between Ash Wednesday and Easter) is to observe the practice of not eating meat on Fridays. Even though the faith I practice doesn't observe Lent, I have found it spiritually useful to do so anyway.    I started refraining from meat on Fridays during Lent in college because I had several friends who were of the Catholic faith. Since I ate meals with them in the cafeteria quite often, I chose not to eat meat out of respect for them. Once I got out of college and was on my own, I stopped the practice.  As a side note, my Mom told me that  when she was young, Catholics didn't eat meat at all during Lent. That's why there are cheese ands raisin ravioli, so that people could get iron from the raisins. (I don't like cheese and raisin ravioli.)     One of the things that I have been exploring as part of my meat free meals is tofu. I'm one of those strange souls that likes to order the tofu dishes at A