UTTER FAIL & THANKSGIVING

Today's post will have no pictures.
Not one.

You want to know why?
Because I failed to take them.

Today is going to be all about the failures of last week.
See? I even failed to take pictures of my failures.

Just in case it will make you feel better to know that there are people who crash and burn around you, today I will be your example.



Right here I would like you to imagine some beautiful yarn.  It came in the mail last week.  It is oh-so-soft and the perfect shade of natural off-white.  It is the yarn to make my next Fair Isle hat.  This one.
Now I would like you to picture it in the biggest most frustrating-est mass of a knot you can imagine.

Also imagine me with an angry face.

Let's just say it took more than a minute to unravel.

That's failure #1.  Or #2 if you count that I didn't take a picture of it.

Ok, now I would like you to imagine a pie.  It is a pumpkin cream pie.  This one.  It is to bring to Thanksgiving for dessert.
Except that it does not resemble that one in any way at all.  If you really want to know what it looked like, imagine a graham cracker crust that looks like it has been accosted by an orange alien soup and then somebody decided it would be fun to use that goop to paintball all over the dish (yeah, that part happened in the car on the way over).

I should have never even taken it.

Someone even said they hated it.

I told them I hated it, too.

Which brings me to the moral of the story:

Thank heaven for Thanksgiving.  And thanksgiving.

This is why:

Right here I would like you to imagine the picture of someone who is truly happy.  You know who I'm talking about--that person that seems to smile and laugh more than others and being around them just makes you happy, too.

Ok, now imagine someone you know who isn't happy at all.  Maybe they seem 10 years older, reclusive, drained of energy, bitter, depressed.

What's the difference?

The difference is a quality that the Roman orator Cicero claimed was "not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others." (Marcus Tullius Cicero, Pro Plancio, 54 BC)

The virtue he is speaking of is GRATITUDE.

I will share just one story with you.
Joseph B. Wirthlin (a prophet) told it back in 2000 to a bunch of college students.

It's about Rulon Gardner.
Rulon grew up in Afton, WY, one of nine children, and so large for his age, his classmates often teased him.  The name-calling hurt but he never became withdrawn or bitter.  Instead it was motivation.

"I would go out, as a kid," Rulon said, "and I could barely pick up a bale of hay.  By the time my senior year came around, I was grabbing four bales of hay at a time, each 100 pounds.  Just grabbing them and walking with them and seeing how physically strong I could be" (quoted in Alan Robinson, "Wrestler's Magic Moment," Associated Press, Sydney, Australia, 28 Sept. 2000)

Rulon found that his size was an asset to him in athletics, and he became a wrestler, and soon the Wyoming state champion.  After graduating from high school, he decided that perhaps he might be good enough to compete in the Olympic Games.

In Atlanta in 1996, due to a miscommunication, he arrived at the weigh-in 22 seconds too late and missed his chance to compete.  He could have despaired.  He could have cursed his luck.  He could have become embittered and resentful.

Instead he worked harder.  He began speaking at youth firesides about his experience.  "I missed the Olympic Games by 22 seconds," he told listeners.  "Don't you let anything keep you from your goals."

After four years of hard work, Rulon wanted to compete in the 2000 Olympic Games in Australia, but he couldn't afford the trip.  That's when members of his hometown rallied to his side.  They held bake sales and potluck dinners and raised enough money to allow Rulon and his family to make the trip.

He did not miss the weigh-in.

He advanced through the preliminary rounds until he reached the final obstacle--Alexander Karelin, known to the world as "the Siberian Bear."  This Russian bear is considered by most as the greatest Greco-Roman wrestler in the history of the sport.  Not only had he not lost a single match in 13 years, but no one had scored a point on him in more than a decade.  Karelin had won the gold medal in three previous Olympic Games and was the heavy favorite to win an unprecedented fourth gold medal.

But at the end of the gold-medal match, it was the farm boy from Afton, Wyoming, who stood triumphant in what many consider the greatest upset of the summer Olympic Games.

Waving an American flag, a grateful Rulon Gardner thanked his family, his God, and his hometown of Afton, WY, for their helping to make the moment possible.

Later, while Rulon was a guest on an evening talk show, the host invited him to watch some highlights from his Olympic victory.  Without warning, the picture changed to a live shot from Afton, WY.  It seemed that the entire population of the town had assembled in the high school gymnasium to cheer and shout for him.

As this man--one of the strongest men in the world--looked into the television monitor at the face of the people he loved, tears of gratitude came to his eyes.

Rulon Gardner knows what it means to be grateful.
(from "Live in Thanksgiving Daily," Ensign, Sept 2001)

And so this is my thought:  Caeli, be grateful for the hands you have to knit with.  Be grateful for a warm, cheerful place to go for Thanksgiving.  Be grateful and let yourself be happy.  It'll make your failures vanish faster than a failed pie goes down the disposal.  You might even be happy and hopeful enough to get the ingredients to try again.

And take the advice of Amulek, a prophet in the Book of Mormon, who said this:

"I desire that ye should remember these things...that ye live in thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and blessings which [God] doth bestow upon you."  (Alma 34:37-38)

Emphasis on daily.

Love, C