Good to remember:

10 Things No One Tells You About Marriage. True, so true! I don’t know why the word which is used to sell everything from sports cars to toothpaste is in the coding for this link. A fairly good article, if not as good as the first one.

But enough of worldly advice. These are the two General Conference addresses which are the basis for the fourth-Sunday “Teachings for our Times” lessons in Relief Society and in the Priesthood quorums in our stake today.

I have been thinking a lot, lately, about what love is, and isn’t. How best to love and serve the various people in my life. How to love my kids in a way that feels loving to them. How to love my friends, regardless of my opinions on the choices some of them have made, or are making. How to support someone who is suffering, or give someone space to deal with their struggles, without abandoning them or giving them the feeling that I have. [How not to behave like the man I dated a few years ago, who fled when I needed his support most of all.] How to remember that I cannot be anybody’s savior, not even my own, but that it is OK, because we already have a Savior. How much I long for a rock-steady priesthood holder to preside in my home.

So these two addresses are powerfully comforting, even as they stir up tender feelings and no small amount of frustration with my current situation. They lift me out of my time-bound concerns and remind me of the eternal perspective. And I am blessed.

Also, there is knitting. Some progress on the smoky plum scarf. And three new skeins of sock yarn, courtesy of Brother Sushi, who gave me the wherewithal and a strict injunction to only spend it on yarn. Little did we know that The Shabby Sheep would advertise a four-hour Boxing Day sale, with 30% off on all yarns. My own out-of-pocket? One red cent! I have enough yardage to make a pair of stunningly pink socks, plus a sweater or shrug for Celeste. This is the same Spud & Chloe sock yarn that I gave my sister for Christmas, though hers was green. [20% silk, 80% superwash merino.] And I still have chocolate. Never has eating my feelings been quite so delicious.

Stay me with clementines, comfort me with superwash, for I am sick of love...