farewell, happy birds

***MORMON ALERT: Lots of LDS-culture-ish terms here. Wanna know what they mean? Just ask...***



Yesterday my friends, the Peartree family, gave their farewell talks at church. They are leaving and moving far, far away to the Big Brown House District of Provo. I know that we're not supposed to give Farewells. Or whatever. But it was appropriate that this particular family all speak, and everyone enjoyed hearing them. I did.

It started with 3-year-old "Benjin" (so says Superstar) talking about Families. Then Brainiac The Super 5 & 1/2-year-old read his own talk from the pulpit. This kid is the shortest grown-up you'll ever encounter. His talk was about the Bible. He read words like "commanded". This made my prompting Curly during her primary talk (about baptismal covenants - yes, she's also 5 & 1/2) seem very anti-climactic. Stuck on a word, La Peartree rushed to his side to assist and was promptly pushed away with a fierce, "I can do it!" Then La Peartree spoke on Testimony, a very lovely, well-researched and inspiring talk. After AC (W's former arch-nemesis) played a wicked good rendition of Come Thou Fount of Ev'ry Blessing on her flute (no, seriously, super-good. I was pleasantly surprised), El Peartree took to the pulpit. ...

Now, sitting here in my daily-blogging mode, his topic of talk escapes me, though I swear I thought about this family and their talks all day yesterday. Fooey.

... He was in our bishopric for a few years, and so he has a unique perspective of the ward. At the end of his talk he teared up and made mention of "The Best Ward In The Church" and "Most Sincere Acts Of Charity [he's] Ever Seen", and things of that nature.

You know, I've often, OFTEN thought about what I would say over the pulpit to this ward if I was in an I-don't-care-what-the-consequences-would-be mood. I can tell you it would not be praise for charitable acts of service. But we've been in the same place, right? Go to church with, and live in the same neighborhood as, the same people, no? I'm not dumb; I know perspective and attitude play a role. Remember the storm from last year (also see cjane's archive from 8/1/06)? I have good memories of those few days -- that storm brought our neighborhood together; we even had a neighborhood picnic on our front yard, a potluck of what ever people had to share. We shared generators to ensure that we wouldn't lose the food in our refrigerators. (My own family...well, we stayed at a hotel at night, but that's beside my point here.) It was nice to feel like we were working together. Also, when I had surgery in February, the YW leaders all brought dinner to my family for a week.

But that doesn't erase all the other stuff, which I won't get into right now. I don't feel like I'm holding on to bitter memories, rather, remembering all the stuff that actually did happen, and learning my lessons from it.

When we were in NY a few weeks ago, I was looking around town, sincerely contemplating whether or not I'd ever consider moving back. In my pondering, I wondered who, in my current neighborhood, I'd keep in contact with. Here's what I came up with: the suedonym family, my friend Annie & her family, and the Peartrees. So here's what I'm taking from this place, for now: three awesome families as friends.