Beginnings and Coming Arounds

Ever notice the patterns in your life?

How things come and go

and come around again?

It is a common theme in my life

and the longer I live

the more often it happens--

these "karmic" moments--

and I'm not all that surprised anymore.

For instance,

as a surprise for my birthday this year,

the 17 year old, Daisie,

gave me a great gift--

one she now heralds as

"The Best Birthday Present for Mom EVER!"--

she was actually tickled to give it to me.

What was it?

A plane ticket to Houston to spend

Thanksgiving with her sister, Danielle and her family.

It would've been the first Thanksgiving in Texas

without family

and Daisie thought it would be a gift for them 

as much as for me.

SO.

I got to go see those sacred grandsons

and spend time with my girl who is far away

from her hometown and family.

I actually got to go to Church with them too.

And as it turns out,

they meet in the very first LDS meetinghouse

that I ever went to in Houston.

And in the same exact ward.

I was a new convert to the Church

and while I'd not lived with my family in a long time,

and they moved from Denver to Houston

while I was in Provo, Utah at BYU

I'd gotten sick and received a blessing

wherein I was told to go "home" to my parents house.

I did as I was counselled and flew to a home I'd never known.

My folks,

still very much against my new faith,

picked me up at the Houston Intercontinental Airport

and on the way to their house,

mother said,

"I don't think there are Mormons in Texas, Dawn. 

We haven't seen a single sign of one."

Just at that exact moment,

my father pulled up to a four-way stop sign

and stopped.

Then, two young men with white shirts and black name tags

drove their bikes right across the intersection

in front of the car.

I bolted out of the car,

and yelled to them!

"Hey! Elders! Where's the nearest Chapel?"

Elder Tonks and Elder Bringhurst gave me the information

I needed and I got back in the car,

so grateful for that tender mercy.

My folks were astounded to say the very least!

The building that my daughter and her family attends

is the very building that I went to thirty years ago.

As I walked into the chapel,

a memory flashed of me standing up at the podium

bearing my testimony of my love of the Savior

and even sharing the previous days' experience

of nearly running over the two missionaries

who told me where to come to church.

And the feeling came to me that as an 18 year old

new convert,

I never imagined,

no never in my wildest dreams,

that I would come back to that building

with my daughter and her husband and my sacred grandsons.

How cyclical

life is...

there are people there,

people I didn't know long ago,

who have welcomed and tended to my family

in my absence.

I am grateful for that continuum of goodness.

SO many came up to me sharing their fondness for my girl

and her family;

shared how much their ward needed a young couple

with strong testimonies of the gospel

and desires to share in the service that is needed.

Though I only attended that ward for a few months,

there are fun memories that remain

and now new ones to add.

Life gives back to us--

we do reap what we sow.