My 2015 Mantra

Each year I create my own MANTRA to recite and live by for the coming year.  It helps me to stay focused and to try to strive to be a little better every day and each year.  One of the things that I have struggled with my whole life is "self-esteem and self-worth".  Now many people who know me might be shocked at that admission because I seem so friendly and outgoing. But, remember we all put on acts when step outside on to the stage of life.  Interestingly it is not what people say or think about me it is what I say and think about myself that is my challenge. It is something that I need to change and want to change and through out this year I will be praying to the Lord for the strength to change.

My 2015 Mantra is....

"Strive to view my self-worth as the Lord does rather than through the eyes of the world."

TAPHOPHILE

I have discovered that I am a “TAPHOPHILE”! 

What is a Taphophile you might ask? It is an individual who has a passion for and enjoyment of cemeteries.  A person who enjoys reading epitaphs, making gravestone rubbings, photographing headstones and burial sites and just an all around lover of things in a cemetery!

Not sure that I like the term Taphophile so I prefer to go by...

Tombstone Tourist, Cemetery Sightseer, Legacy Lover or a Gravesite Googler!

I am not sure when my love for cemeteries started, as I have always been interested in history and the past.  One can learn a lot by walking through cemeteries especially old ones. My family all think that I am a little bit odd for my fondness for the dead and their final resting places.  To me cemeteries are Gardens of Remembrance or Memorial Parks not just eerie graveyards. They are places of peace and rest not just for the dead but also the living.  There is quietness and a reverence for life in a cemetery that one can feel nowhere else.

For the last ten years or so I have been photographing cemeteries from all the places that I visit. As I have traveled though Asia and across the United States I always keep my eyes open to these beautiful burial grounds.  Some grounds are not always kept up and have been left to survive time and weather.  These become very sad, lonely places and yet they still tell a story. 

One of my favorite gravesites is in Ohio on the corner of a small family farm.  No parking lot, no gates, no lights just four rows of headstones crumbling under the pressure of elements and eroded by time.  As I walked this hollowed ground I felt a peace and comfort that filled my whole body.  I was actually looking for the headstones of my great great great grandfather and mother.  Walking among those broken and forgotten tombstones I felt a heaviness of heart because I had come such a long way to find the them and it was not looking like I would be able to get a photo as many were destroyed.  My wandering took me to the end of the little cemetery and I looked over by a large oak tree and saw two large markers standing almost erect.  I walked around and read the names and yep, you guessed, it was my great great great grandparents.  It had been raining slightly but then clouds moved and the sun shown down and I was able to capture the headstones for my records.  In that small family cemetery in a small township in the middle of Ohio I felt connected to family.

I am sure that some of you might think that I have definitely a screw loose – or am just plain weird.  But, I am okay with that because I like my unique interest – just not the name. (Taphophile)  so I think I will stick with....Legacy Lover it sounds so much more refined!

Here are some of my more recent photos that capture my feelings of being a Legacy Lover

Salsburg Austria Sept 2014

Kanchanaburi Thailand Dec 2014

 Here are some from the past

Derailing in Kanchanburi

Saturday mornings Ron love to get up and bike...I am a little bored with our normal routes so I had him plan a ride in Kanchanaburi, about 2 hours north of our home in Thailand.  We left the house at about 6 AM with the bikes strapped on to our van.  I promptly laid back my seat, grabbed a pillow and a plush blanket that I brought and went back to sleep as our driver, Khun Nat made his way up the highway and to our starting spot.  

We started at the Chinese Thai cemetery.  Which of course I had to take photos of and walk around - I just love love cemeteries.  That will be for another blog...

Then we were off on our short...80K bike ride!

Ron had the map of the route on his phone and gave our driver his iPad with the route marked ad off we went.  It was overcast and a beautiful temperature to bike.  I love biking in out in the country side as you see so many wonderful scenes of Thai life.  Ron and I tried to capture a few..

Sadly our ride had to come to an end only 20K into our ride as I managed to derail my derailer!  I had been having troubles with shifting ever since one of biking accidents but this time I messed it up good.  I was just starting to climb a long hill and shifted down and the derailed broke right off.  No fixing that - not even McIver could pull that one off.  So we loaded the bikes back on the van and drove home, showered, got a sandwich and then went and did what everyone does here in Thailand when they have a few hours to spare...got a foot massage!

A Giving Christmas

This is our first Christmas since 1983 that we have no children in our home.  It is so very different and being so far from family just adds to the altered spirit of this Holiday season. 

Our family’s typical Christmas Eve tradition calls for a delicious meal with family and friends. Which is then followed by a talent show and the reenactment of the nativity. This year was quite different; Ron and I slept in then went for a bike ride, went shopping for our service project gifts, got a foot massages and had apples, cheese and crackers for dinner! We watched a movie while we put together our gifts to each other, 200 toothbrushes and boxes of toothpaste for a group of Thais that support our neighborhood.

On Christmas morning there was no pitter-patter of little feet to see if Santa had come during the night so we were able to sleep in yet again! I made Ron some banana pancakes for breakfast while I had Thai chicken basil leftovers!  Since I was missing my family my brother, Gene, Face timed me into the extended family Christmas Eve program back in Washington.  I was able to see the talent show and the nativity pageant with the nieces and nephews.  The sad part was that I had to watch them eat the yummy cream puff desert!  After I dried my “I am missing my family” tears we boxed up our 200 gifts to deliver to our Thai families.

 Our friends the Nelson's collected toys and clothes for the same group. We met with the Nelson family Rich, Diana, Lauren, Maddy and Jenna to help sort through the toys and clothes on Christmas afternoon.

Then we loaded up their car with the goods and went to play Santa’s helpers for Christmas day.  It was a most wonderful way to spend Christmas.  If you can’t be with family then go out and serve others and all will feel the Christmas spirit.

Christmas night we stayed up until midnight waiting for our call from our missionary son, Elder John Gailey, in New York.  That call just made Christmas day complete!  I was able to talk to each of my children and grandchildren at the same time.  I finally went to bed rejoicing...

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

Mt. Kinabalu - Borneo

When I get a bee in my bonnet the only thing to do is get it out...I had decided long ago that I wanted to climb/hike a mountain in Asia - Everst was out of the question so I choose the highest one in Boreno, Malaysia - Mt. Kinabalu. 13,435 feet above sea level.

I had hiked trails all over Hong Kong so I thought no problem we got this covered. Little did I know what was in store for Ron and I on our climbing adventure. 

We stayed the first night in a lodge to help us adjust to the higher altitude,at about 5000 ft. In the morning we started our climb at about 6000 ft - hiked for 6 hours and reached our dorm room for the night at about 11,000 ft - the trail was only 6K long - but it was straight UP the mountain and for more then 1/2 of the time the rain was pouring down and it was like climbing up a waterfall- of course the rain water takes the least resistant path which was the TRAIL! My knee, the surgery one, would not allow me to reach the peak - you scale the granite side of the mountain - which is another 2,500 ft. 

During the last kilometer of the climb I had to mentally go inside myself and kept repeating one of my mantras... 

"I can do HARD things...I can do HARD things."  At one point on the trail..AKA the "waterfall" I just wanted to sit down and cry.  I had to keep going and pushing forward even though every fiber of my being wanted to QUIT!   

I learned some valuable lessons on my climb, some that are sacred to me.  I have done some pretty amazing things and some very hard things - but climbing this mountain was both physically and mentally one of the most challenging thing I have done in a long time.

I didn't QUIT - I kept climbing and I am okay with what we accomplished, albeit sore muscles and weary bones! 

I ROCK being a 54 year old NANA!