It's a beautiful Sunday here, sunshine and birdsong and a butterfly just flittered by. It's teasing me, trying to entice me outdoors and off the computer. Smart little creature, isn't it.

Sunday Thoughts:

1. I"m thankful for my new piano. OK, it's really an old piano. We've had a "piano fund" for ten years that keeps losing its money to something more pressing; yesterday we installed my friend's piano which she is giving us. I've always had this dream of my family gathered around singing hymns and carols while I play. LOL Well, it might have to wait for the grandchildren, but at least I have something to work on now. Cheery is interested in lessons, PMM just wants to make noise on it, and we're working on Tallman. My friends who play are amazed at the size of his hands and say he MUST learn to take advantage of those mammoth fingers. We'll see. :-)

2. I was lacking a bit in one of the talks I'll be giving next month, and I'm very grateful that this morning, I found an excerpt from a conference talk with just the thought I need. I'll be pressing it into service, and of course giving credit. :-)

3. This week has brought home to me once more just how critical an influence my reading material has upon my thoughts and mood. I was looking forward to reading a particular book, but got only to page 7 before finding a "fatal word" so I discarded it immediately. (Anyone who noted the titles on my to-read shelf---please take note and read Bill Bryson only with extreme caution--he's just been tossed out of my house on his ear.) So when I began another book I had been wanting to read, I didn't want to quit and toss it too. I began The Egg and I, by Betty MacDonald (yes, the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle Betty MacDonald) You'd think the author of Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle would be clean, especially since it was written in an earlier era. Well. It wasn't exactly awful, such that I HAD to get rid of it, but there were just some pernicious bad attitudes and habits in it, which I tried to shrug off, since the book WAS amusing. I periodically fear at times that constantly tossing books in protest of things that seem not to bother others means I must be unintelligent or at least on the road to becoming an anti-intellectual dud. At any rate, I kept telling myself this had come well-recommended and I should buck up and finish it. But last night I had to admit that it was having a depressing influence, that I just was not feeling the Spirit very strongly, that something was up. When I got up this morning, I had a few minutes to read, but very definitely knew I did NOT want to read that book before church. Well. So I decided just to quit reading the book, period--if it wasn't good for me before church it wasn't going to do me much good AFTER church, either. Then, naturally, there was a talk in sacrament meeting on this very thing. :-) Okay, Lord, I'm convinced again, the book is gone, replaced by something thoroughly wholesome, and I'll toss quicker next time I encounter the bookish equivalent of a spiritual wet blanket. :-)