Hello May . . .

 

You can hear some lovely May Music here.

"Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
and summer's lease hath all too short a date."
~William Shakespeare

I love this month . . .  when the air is afresh with the beautiful smell of budding lilacs and apple blossoms.  Oh I do so adore lilacs . . .  with their beautiful blooms ranging anywhere from pristine white to deep purple in colour . . .  and the apple blossoms with their pinks . . . all the prettier for the green of the leaves.   I am quite sure that heaven is filled with white picket fences  adorned with abundant  clusters of lilac and apple blossom which never fade away . . .

The month of May is an experience in pure rapture . . . . with all of the blooms which seem to come fast and furious with the dawning of this month.  I think though out of all I am most enamoured with the lilac . . .

 

 Faithful and with a sweet and heady perfume.   I gather armloads of them and bring them into the house where their sweetness sings with as pure and as endearing as young love . . . their blossoms bubble out of every container I can find to put them in . . . sugar bowls, cream jugs . . . drinking glasses . . .



Each room gets treated to a bouquet . . .  even if it is only a few sprigs in a glass bottle.  Every room deserves to enjoy a bit of this springtime pleasure . . . they don't last for very long and I want to drink up every moment of their stay.

Mom has a lovely lilac bush outside her living room window beside the deck and it puts on a lovely show each spring . . . I miss mom.  Oh how I would love to be able to give her a sweet hug right now, but I am not alone in that feeling I know  . . .

Are you ready for May flowers?   We have sure had enough of April showers.  If the amount of rain we had in April is anything to go by, we will be utterly overflowing with May flower abundance!

 

Find out how here.

One of the things we used to do for the first of May when I was growing up was to make a May Day basket or cone which we would leave on a neighbors doorstep or hang on their front door knob as a sweet surprise for them.  Do children still do this?   I hope so . . .

This weekend is a bit of a washout weather wise, and they say a huge band of rain is set to come through tomorrow.  We were planning on going to the Temple with the Zone Leaders, but if its raining heavily, we won't be.  Motorway driving in heavy rain is not my cup of tea.

As it is the first Sunday of the month I would like to leave you with my testimony.

When I was Baptised in 1999, I had a testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and this church.  It was a tiny testimony and a tender one, but it was enough to let me know that this was what I wanted to embrace.   Since then my testimony had grown and strengthed greatly.   What I once thought might be true and which gave me sweet feelings, has grown and become a knowledge which is steadfast and true and which I don't just think to be true, but what I know to be true  . . .  without wavering . . .  it still gives me sweet feelings and a tenderness of heart.  When I read the scriptures, sing the hymns, listen to our leaders speak, and share in the tender feelings of others, my heart is filled with a sweetness which defies description.  Sometimes tears of joy roll down my cheeks and words cannot explain the sweet feelings which fill my heart and spill over.  When I think of what our Saviour did . . .  for each of us . . . when I think of how very much my Heavenly Father loves me . . . and each of you . . . when I sing our sweet hymns in a voice that only a mother could love . . . when I kneel in prayer . . .  I could just burst open with all of the feelings of love and of joy in my heart.  There is a joy which defies description which accompanies this knowledge that I have, this testimony of truth.

When I was a child I believed in God and in Jesus Christ, but I never thought that I was important enough to matter to them as an individual.  Over the last seventeen years I have come to know that I am indeed very important to them and that I was sent here to earth to experience this joy which I feel . . . to know that they love me.  They love me.   They love me.  And oh, how very much I love them back.  So much so that my heart cannot contain it . . .  it spills out and over and is a love which I want to share with everyone around me.  I cannot help myself.  And yes . . .  sometimes I am afraid and sometimes I am sad and sometimes I feel utterly woeful, but these feelings always undergirded with this sweet knowledge that they know how I feel and they will carry me until I feel better.  This strengthens me.  My house and heart are now built upon the rock.

I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true and that God's people have always been led by prophets, and that we have a prophet on the earth today to lead and guide us.   I know that Jesus Christ is my redeemer . . .  my Saviour . . .  and that He has shown me the way back to my Heavenly Father, and my Heavenly Home.  I am a stranger here . . .  this is not my home, but I can return home and with His guidance I know I can get there whole and in one piece.  He will help me.  The holy scriptures are our guidebook and I trust in them and in the Saviour and in our prophet.  They will not let me down or lead me astray.   I wish with all of my heart that everyone knew these things and could feel of this joy which I feel.

And I leave these thoughts with you in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.



In The English Kitchen today  . . .  Apple Pie Cake with a Brown Sugar Sauce.  Delicious!

Have a truly wonderful and blessed Sunday.  I hope you know that  . . .

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And I do too.