A very busy week

I arrived home Friday afternoon, exhausted.  Here’s why.

I flew out to Columbus Ohio last Thursday at 0600.  That meant I had to drive to Kendra’s Wednesday afternoon, after a hard day trying to get the yard in shape for a week of inattention.  Weeds don’t take a holiday, do they?  So I arrived at Kendra’s to visit for a short time because she would be having a baby while I was gone.  She said she would drive me to the SLC airport at 0400 because she couldn’t sleep anyway.  (I am really glad I don’t have to deliver babies.)  So I stayed at her house and I drove the Prius to the airport, she let me off, and Kendra drove back to her house.

The day of flying was not particularly stressful, but flying is always stressful.  Emily picked me up at the Columbus airport and I went to their place to help get things ready to move to Lehi Utah.  Keep in mind that Gaye and I were just out there in May to help the kids move from Athens Ohio to Columbus.  They were not planning on another move so soon, but so much for plans.  I took the trampoline apart, Grant helped me take the bunk beds apart (the boys thought it was a treat that they would be sleeping on the floor), and I was ready to crash into bed.  Friday was more of the same.  The truck would be ready to load on Saturday morning.

Spencer and I picked up the truck on Saturday morning.  I thought it looked a little smaller than the one that I drove from Athens, but we drove it back to the house.  Emily took the boys to a friend’s house to play while we loaded the truck.  She was gone from their house about 2 minutes when we got a phone call that Grant had broken his arm.  He was trying to imitate the Olympic gymnasts on the bar and fell off.  So Spence spent the whole day Saturday getting Grant’s arm set and cast. It was really a nasty break, but did not not require surgery, at least for the present.  Meanwhile, Emily noticed that this was not the truck she had ordered, so she worked all day on getting the proper truck.  People who were going to help showed up and we had to turn them away.  Finally Penske said the truck would be ready on Sunday afternoon.

Everything was already packed up except the big beds, so we slept on those beds one more night.  Sunday Spence and Henry and I went to church and then drove over to pick up the truck and go home and get started loading.  We were just getting started when the whole priesthood body of the ward showed up in their white shirts and loaded the truck.  It was done in just over an hour.  What a blessing!  We would probably still be out there loading if they had not come along.  Loading a moving van on Sunday is not a usual activity, but this needed to be done and everybody pitched in.  We were able to get on our way and drove to the Indiana border to stop for the night.

We live in a vast country.  Every time I fly over it I marvel at how big it is.  But driving brings it into greater focus. Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, MIssouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Utah were the states we drove through.  Going at 60 mph allows the vastness to really sink in.  I was usually driving the van with Emily and Sam and Penny, the dog, in the morning while Spencer took the boys in the truck.  Then we would switch and I would take Penny in the truck.  We would drive until Sam couldn’t take any more and stop for the night.  All of us fit quite cozily into one motel room with two beds.  Grant and Henry enjoyed the adventure of camping on the floor, Sam would sleep in his portable unit, and the adults would take up the beds.  Then we would be up, eat breakfast, and be on our way.  We arrived in Lehi on Thursday afternoon, found the house they will be living in, and started to unload.  A couple of neighbors stopped by to assist and Emily’s brother Mason, Jeremy, and Tom came by.  It was all off the truck, the beds were put together, and we settled in for the night.  I don’t think I have ever felt that tired.  Friday I arrived home in Twin Falls.

So what did I learn?  This is a huge country with vast natural resources.  Driving takes time.  There is not much advantage in driving faster than the legal limit.  You might get there a few minutes earlier but then you just have to wait for everybody else.  Riding with a small dog is not so bad.  She just stretched out on the truck bench seat and slept.  Rest stops are good ideas.  Kids make the trip more challenging.  People are thankful when we help each other.  The portobello mushroom melt sandwich I had at the vegetarian cafe in Laramie was actually quite tasty.  My own bed is the most comfortable.  

Meanwhile, Gaye has been busy with new granddaughters.  Kendra and Ryan now have a lovely little daughter named Alyssa, born Monday, and Ashlee and Trevor have a  lovely little daughter named Aniston, born Thursday.  Girls are a minority among our grand children, but we are happy for either kind.  That they are whole and healthy is a great blessing.  Is there any greater wonder than the miracle of children?  I can’t think of any.

This has turned out to be too long.  Sorry.  I need to write more often and shorter.  No photos, either.  I will work on that next time.

That’s all for now.

Faith is Action

July is Pioneer time in the Great Basin.  There are several reasons.  Brigham Young and the first pioneer wagon train arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in July, 1847.  Johnson’s Army was on its way to the valley in 1857.  The last of the handcart companies, Martin and Willie, were leaving Iowa City in July 1856.  We remember the happenings of July 4 1776, too, but the big one is Pioneer Day throughout the Great Basin.

For the past four years I have been reading the Willie Handcart Company journals every summer.  (These are available as daily emails from BYU studies.  Sign up here. http://handcart.byu.edu/SignUp.aspx)  But each year I find new things as I read.  It is not that the words have changed, it is just that my perspective is different.  Sort of like reading the Book of Mormon and going to the Temple.  The words are the same but the experience is always new.

The entry for July 14 contains this story:

One of the faithful Danish couples was Peder Mortensen, age 48, and his wife, Lena Mortensen, age 46, who were converted to the gospel in 1855. Due to a desire to gather to Zion and rejection by their community, they sold everything they owned in anticipation of their journey. They had land and animals. Together with their eight children, ages 5 through 27, they traveled to Copenhagen, Denmark, to stay at the mission home until they could emigrate to Utah. The Mortensens’ oldest son, Morten, was asked by the mission president to stay in Denmark and serve as a missionary. Morten, along with the rest of the Mortensen family, was concerned, but agreed. The mission president promised the Mortensens that every one of them would reach Zion in safety because of Morten’s willingness to stay and serve, along with the family’s willingness to do without his much-needed help. Peder was physically disabled. He and his wife had planned to buy a wagon so that he could ride in it to the Valley. However, after hearing the counsel of their Church leaders, they shared their money with other members of the company so that sufficient handcarts and supplies could be bought in Iowa City. Peder’s disability kept him from walking. He rode in a supply wagon until about September 6th, when the loads were adjusted due to a buffalo stampede. He had to be carried in a handcart from that point, until the company was rescued. Morten came to Utah after his three-year mission in 1858, two years after the rest of his family had all safely arrived in Zion.1

1. “Mortensen Family History,” typescript copy, Church Archives.

I am really boosted by this vignette.  Here is a successful family in Denmark who all join the Church.  Within one year they are on their way to another country far across the ocean.  They willingly, perhaps even eagerly, leave their traditional life, sell all their worldly possessions, follow the instructions of men they don’t really know to do difficult things, and readily give up their nest egg to help others not as fortunate as they are. 

These faithful Saints were promised certain blessings.  They acted faithfully.  They appear to have learned very quickly what faith is about.  Joseph Smith said that through the Atonement of Christ all mankind may be saved by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel, and the that laws and ordinances are faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, etc.  The key here is to learn how to exercise faith, and the key to that is learning where to center our faith.  In the Mortensen instance, the promises made were fully realized.  Others were promised that the Lord would temper the elements and they would all be brought to the valley safely and in good time.  To our perspective, those promises do not appear to have been realized.  But all those people acted faithfully.

I have spent a lot of energy thinking about this.  I think the key is in where we put our faith.  We go to sacred places and are asked to exercise our faith in behalf of specific persons.  What does that mean?  Should we tightly close our eyes and say “I believe!  I believe!  I believe!”?  No, faith is a principle of action.  (See Bible Dictionary)  We exercise our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ by keeping our covenants at all times and in all places and all circumstances.  Can faith be exercised on demand at a moment?  I think the closest we can come to doing that is to renew (remake, not just think about) the covenants and commitments we have made to be obedient.  Shadrach, Meshach, Abed-nego, and Daniel exercised faith.  They said, “We believe that our God will save us, but if not, we will be obedient and worship the Living God anyway.”  Their faith was not a barter of “We will do such and such if You will do such and such.”  They had faith in Jesus Christ, and it changed their very natures.

I am going to do an experiment as I read the Book of Mormon again.  I am going to take every reference to “the word” as a reference to Jesus Christ.  Here are a couple of beginning examples.  In Nephi’s vision of the tree of life he said the rod of iron was “the word of God.”  Is that the scriptures (words) or is it Jesus Christ (Word)?  Alma told his group of investigators to do an experiment and plant a seed.  If they were faithful the seed would grow to a perfect knowledge.  The seed was the word.  Is that the gospel message, or is it Jesus Christ?  We will not be saved by the Atonement, we will be saved by the Lord Jesus Christ.  We will not be saved by promises of our leaders who are doing their best to act as agents of the Lord.  We are saved by the Lord Jesus Christ, not by some abstraction.  (See Richard N. Williams, BYU Idaho Devotional, God of Condescension, God of Philosophy.) 

Pardon the preaching.  That’s all for now.

Another adventure

 

Have you ever been on a train ride? Four decades ago I arrived in South Africa and my first assignment was in a city 450 miles away.  Travel was by train and it would be an overnight trip.  I didn’t speak Afrikaans, I didn’t know north from south or east from west because I was in the southern hemisphere and everything was different in orientation from the northern hemisphere.  And I was traveling alone.  Well, I got there just fine and it was actually quite an adventure.  I had opportunities to travel by train a few more times, once for three days on a transfer from Salisbury, Rhodesia to Kimberley in Cape Province.  Each time it was a memorable and even enjoyable adventure.

Dr Patterson and the committee

In May Gaye and I flew out to Athens Ohio to cheer for Spencer as he defended his dissertation in communication at Ohio University.  The big school in Ohio is THE Ohio State University, but Ohio U was there first.  In fact, the other university with Ohio in its name has to pay OU for the right to have their marching band spell OHIO on their football field.  But I digress.  We left our car in Salt Lake and flew out for the big event.  The defense went very well.  Now there is another Dr Patterson, PhD.  (Good work, Spence.)

We planned the trip to include a train ride back to Salt Lake in stead of flying.  We enjoyed the visit with Spence, Emily, and the Three WIld Boys.  We helped them pack up their house and move to Columbus where Spencer has been working for a couple of months at the other Ohio university.  We got them all settled in and headed out for Cincinnati by way of Dayton.  Dayton is the home of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (no relation that I know of), home of The United States Air Force Museum.  It is the biggest such museum, and a week there would not allow enough time to read all the information plaques or even walk around every airplane in the seven huge hangers, but three hours was all we could spare.  It was exhausting but time well spent.

Then we went on to Cincy where we attended a Reds game.  

It was a great game with the home team pulling off a squeeze play in the bottom of the 10th inning to beat Detroit.  I have always been a NL fan.  I think the pitchers should bat.  The AL has designated hitters.  Wimps.  After the game we drove to the Amtrak station, said our good-byes, and Gaye and I checked in and waited for our train to take us to Chicago.  The ride from Cincinnati to Chicago cost us $38 each.  Not bad.

The run north was interesting. We were seated in the coach section, where the seats are bigger and more comfortable than the first class section on any airplane.  The train was a hour late, so we didn’t board until 0300 Saturday morning.  Sleeping on the train was difficult, especially with people walking past all the time, babies crying, and the newness of train travel.  But it was not bad.  Gaye will say that it was quite dirty.  Probably true.  

A single mom in front of us had two small kids and about a ton of baggage so we helped her haul it out of the station.  I was doing my Boy Scout good turn daily and she was very thankful.

     
























Chicago is an  interesting place.  We were right down town, practically under the Sears Tower, so we hiked a few blocks to get some Chicago style pizza at Giordano’s.  


We had some pizza in Athens that was really the best I have ever had.  Really thin crust and amazing flavors.  The Chicago style was a completely different experience, but it was also very tasty.  They put the sauce on top of the cheese and stuff, and the crust is sort of like pie crust.  I think I ate more pizza in that week than I have had in the past two or three years.

We finished in time to hike back to the station and await our train to Salt Lake.  The first class passengers get to wait in a nice lounge at the station.  Then we walked out onto the platform and Bob, our attendant, got us settled into our room. We had a sleeper berth on the California Zephyr. You can see the compartments at amtrak.com.  It was quite small but adequate.  There were two wide reclining seats facing each other.  

Three rest rooms and a shower were practically outside the door.  The car was a double decker, but we were on the lower level, so the sway from the motion of traveling was barely noticeable.  I had anticipated the click-clack  I remembered from my African excursions, so we were totally surprised when we found that we could carry on a conversation as easily as if we were sitting in our own living room.  The compartment had its own air conditioning, reading lights, speakers so we could hear announcements about stops, eating times, and other general information.  The windows were dirty but we cleaned them at the next stop and solved that problem.

Dining was a terrific experience.  I have not been on a cruise, but I imagine it is about the same.  The food was excellent, and it was included in the price of the sleeper.  We made reservations for dinner and were called when it was our turn.  Meanwhile, we could go up and sit in the lounge car with the huge windows or sit at the cafe-style tables and read or visit.  There was a cafe car downstairs for anybody who wanted a sandwich or soda.  At the dinner table we would be paired up with another couple or two singles.  We met a couple from North Carolina, a couple from Switzerland (he was German, she was French!), a Columbia University law professor, and three older ladies all traveling alone to visit or return from visiting their kids across the country.  The steaks or fish or whatever we wanted was excellent and the service was outstanding.

We slept across Nebraska.  I think that was good planning.  The seats make into nice bunks.  They were narrow but adequate.  I got the upper bunk, of course.  It had about 18 inches to the ceiling.  Plenty when I am sleeping.  In fact, I slept like a rock.  The safety strap was nice addition to keep me from rolling off the bunk, but I never noticed it.  

When we awoke the sun was rising over the eastern Colorado plains.  We had breakfast outside Denver, stopped for a few minutes to take on more passengers, and then began our climb up the steep foothills into the Colorado Rockies.  There were 29 tunnels along that stretch, the longest being 6.2 miles.  Gaye and I even enjoyed a nice nap as we continued westward.  Finally we arrived in Salt Lake at 11 pm, caught a taxi back out to the airport hotel where we left our car, and got a great night’s sleep before driving home Monday morning.

What did I think of the train ride?  It was a little slower than flying, but when considering all the airport security hassles and the requirement to be there hours early, plus waiting for transportation to and from the airport, the train was really not much slower.  The train was definitely more comfortable, quieter, the food was great, and we felt more rested when we reached the end of the journey.  The cost is comparable including the sleeping accomodations.  The main drawback is that the desired destination needs to be near an Amtrak terminal.  I hope we can do it again sometime.  

That’s all for now.

Thoughts about life and life

The TED series of talks and presentations has produced some absolutely brilliant and enlightening experiences.  Check them out at TED.com.  But today I am fascinated by this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=fKyljukBE70

Life is such a wonderful mystery.  Just this week I have seen the miracle at both ends of what we call mortality.  We have a new grandchild on the way.  Tom and Lindsay have announced that a baby is due to be born on 1-3-13.  Hows that for a birthday!  This TED presentation shows some amazing photography of the development of the fetus from conception to birth.  The guy doing the presentation is a mathematician.  He makes a comment a couple of times that the process goes beyond anything he can express mathematically.  In March I mentioned an article that demonstrated the preposterously small chance of getting all the games of the NCAA tournament correct by a flip of a coin.  That was with only 64 variables.  Here is a human body, infinitely more complex than a two-way choice  (heads or tails) using 64 variables.  What a wonderful expression of God's love for us, His children.

The other end of this mortal experience came vividly to my mind this week as our neighbor and good friend, David Long, suddenly had a ruptured aortic aneurism and he was gone.  Suddenly changed from vibrant and healthy and interacting with his lovely family to an empty body being prepared to be put into the ground.  But that is not where Dave is.  I believe with all my heart and soul that he is just as alive now as he was last week.  He is now in the animated form of his spirit, which must surely look quite like the physical body.  He can think and talk and move and express feelings and be concerned for his sweet wife and five great kids who had to stay behind.  He will be put to work immediately, for there is surely a lot of work there that needs to be done.  He and all of us will prepare and wait for the resurrection, when we are called out of the grave into another dimension of life that will leave this one in the dark.

My belief in the resurrection is what keeps me sane.  There are numerous scriptural references to the what and when of that event, but the how is sort of left unanswered.  Finding out the answer to that one will be an experience I cannot now comprehend.  But we will all find out.  That thought gives more impetus to the importance of this phase of mortality.  Elder Dallin H. Oaks said, "In our eternal journey, the resurrection is the mighty milepost that signifies the end of mortality and the beginning of immortality."   (lds.org/general-conference/2000/04/resurrection?lang=eng)  It marks the boundary between mortality and immortality.  It gives us something to aim for and hope for and work for.  Without the resurrection this life on Earth just does not make much sense.

So watch the TED presentation and spend some time contemplating the purpose of life.  We are not here by randomness.  We have a divine beginning and an eternal destiny.

That's all for how.

Bears and Rx

I grew up 70 miles from West Yellowstone MT.  People came from all over the world to see Yellowstone Park, Old Faithful, and in the old days, the bears of Yellowstone.  We could comfortably leave our house early in the morning, drive to West for breakfast, spend the day at Old Faithful hiking and geyser gazing, feed some treats to bears along the road side in the Park, and be comfortably home in bed at a normal hour that night.

One day, literally one day, the bureaucrats decided that they would not allow the bears to feed on the garbage at the dump so they closed the dump.  There was also a sudden and forceful push to not feed the bears along the road side.  The bears that had been feeding there were suddenly shut off from their food source, and they didn't like it.  Some bears starved while others began looking for other easy food, like campers coolers, garbage cans, and anything else easy to get.  It took a long time to solve the problems that developed because of the original policy of letting the bears eat the garbage (a free lunch for them, at least at that time) and the sudden change to another policy of not allowing access to the "free" garbage lunches.

This headline is from a website on government freebies:

Free taxpayer money given to University of New Orleans.  Get in on the Big government grant handouts before it's too late. 
 

A dear friend was finding that her life was getting more complicated the older she became.  She had developed  hypertension, so she was put on medication for that.  That created a dry mouth, so another med was prescribed for that.  She developed other discomforts incident to getting older and new medications were prescribed for those ailments.  But the prescriptions were coming from different doctors who seemed to be focused on dealing with the malady related to their own realm of medical practice.  Every prescription has side effects that are often uncomfortable, so another artificial chemical plan of attack was engaged.  Finally she was just plain miserable, burdened with serious costs for the medications she was taking, and very discouraged.

So my friend went to another doctor who astutely diagnosed a different problem.  He had her bring every prescription and medicine bottle to his office and the two of them worked through every one.  The final plan was to stop all the old medications, under careful observation by the new doctor, and then deal with the problems that really needed attention.  She ended up going through a miserable few months, although never in as much danger as she had been when she was on the pharmaceutical a la carte she had been on. The pain was worth it.  Now she is on far fewer meds, she has control of her life because of some important life-style adjustments, and she has a lot more money to spend on doing things that she really enjoys.

Do you suppose our government could learn something from these real-life illustrations?  I hope so.

That's all for now.

Retire?

I have two more days of work as a dentist.  I remember being accepted to University of Washington Dental School before we were married.  That was in 1972, around Christmas.  Going to Seattle single was not in my plans.  Fortunately Gaye said she would be willing to share my world if I would share hers and we have never looked back.  But that was then and this is now.

My career in dentistry has been a wonderful journey.  The profession has changed a lot since I entered school in September 1973.  Techniques, materials, regulations, costs, the organization of the profession, equipment, attitude of the public, continuing education requirements and opportunities...these and many more aspects of the profession have made dramatic changes.  Most have been good.  Some have not.

The most common question is concerning what I am going to do now that I have all this time on my hands.  I really don't think I will have a problem with being bored.  I have a huge garden to take care of.  In fact I am trying the square foot garden approach this year.  I'll let you know how it goes.  I have my pottery wheel and electric kiln, and a gas kiln that I am trying to get through the building inspection bureaucracy so I can use it.  Stay tuned.  The wood working equipment in the shop is getting bored from not being used enough.  We have kids in Ohio and Alaska (recently moved from Brisbane Australia) and scattered around the Great Basin.

(Actually we love seeing the kids but it is the grandkids that are the real attraction.  Sorry kids, but it is true.)  We get to the Twin Falls temple weekly.  I intend to stay tuned with my violin and the Magic Valley Symphony (we had our final concert of the season two days ago).  I am the assistant primary accompanist at church, which I love.  And I am learning to play the bagpipes.  Yep.  It is like playing 4 oboes or bassoons at once.

I have wanted to play the pipes for ever.  That reminds me of a Wizard of Id comic strip.  A guy is talking to the King, applying for the open position of Chief Torturer.  Asked what his qualifications were he replied proudly, "I can play the accordion and the bagpipes!"  He got the job, of course.

I think the first time I really heard the wail of bagpipes was in East London South Africa when I was there for a missionary business meeting.  There was a parade down town and a band marched past.  The sound nearly took my breath away.  Some of my ancestors are from Scotland.  Maybe it really is in my genes.  I tune in Thistle and Shamrock on NPR and any other program that plays Celtic music.  We went to Ricks College a few years ago to see the Black Watch.  I actually shed tears because the music was so stirring.  I have been thinking about learning to play but not knowing how to get started.  Then there was an article in our local paper about a bagpipe band in Twin Falls.  Are you kidding!  I immediately contacted the band leader and I will pick up my practice chanter next Tuesday.  I have already been practicing the fingering for the first 5 notes by holding a long pencil and moving my fingers to mimic the chanter.  They say it takes 4-6 months with the practice chanter before one is ready to graduate to the pipes.  I intend to do it a lot sooner than that because we will be on a mission by the end of September.

So there you have it.  Gaye will have a few things for me to do around the homestead, I am sure, but there are plenty of activities planned.  Oh, did I tell you I am learning to play the bagpipes?

That's it for now.

Blind and Sight

In my undergraduate days at BYU I had a scholastic scholarship that paid for tuition, but living and books were from my pocket. The $50 per month I received from ROTC helped with my rent and some of the groceries, but I was still a little short and I did not want to borrow money.  So I got a job with the university reading for a blind student.  The pay was not great, but a box of corn flakes was 43 cents then, so it balanced out.  

I was assigned to read for a young man, about 19 years old, from somewhere in southern Utah.  He was majoring in chemical engineering with a minor in music.  My job was to read his text assignments to him and to go with him to his class when he had a test or quiz and read that for him, too.  His name was Glen.  Not really, but that is what I’ll call him.  As I think about it, I learned a lot more from Glen than he learned from me.  We got along very well and I soon learned that he was fully involved in life.

For instance, Glen did not like carrying the traditional white cane.  He was acutely aware of what was going on around him and seemed to get along just fine with out the cane.  One time I was walking from one building to another with him and I tried an experiment.  At BYU, when the weather is nice, every sidewalk intersection between classes is a loose traffic jam of students standing and talking about whatever subject needed airing.  So as we headed along the walk to his next class, which I think was chemistry, I purposefully led him toward one of those gaggles at an intersection.  I wanted to see how he would pick his way through the crowd.  To throw in a factor of difficulty, I kept up a conversation with Glen as we walked.  He picked his way through the congestion without a mishap.  I was impressed with Glen’s ability to carry on a conversation and still be fully aware of his surroundings by listening and feeling.

Sometimes I went with Glen to a room in the library that was a designated assembly point for blind students on campus.  They all knew each other by voice and would call out a greeting as soon as someone else entered.  “Hi Glen!  It’s nice to see you,” one of them called out cheerfully. Another conversation going on included “well, let’s take a look at that,” and another young lady cheerily bid good-by with “see you later.”  I remember thinking something like, “You can’t use that word.  You can’t see anything.”  But it was not long until I learned that I was very wrong.  They could see things I was not even aware existed.  

One afternoon I had just finished reading an exam for Glen and he wanted to get to the Cannon Center at Helaman Halls for lunch before they stopped serving it.  Because Glen didn’t like the cane, he had a peculiar way of swinging his arms in a little circle in front of him so he could feel if he was about to bump into something and change course.  He turned quickly from me and ran smack into a door that was left open.  Ouch!  The force of the encounter knocked him backward a little, but he quickly recovered and, without any complaint, he adjusted his direction through the open door and on down the path to the lunch room.  I stood amazed.

My experience with Glen was a real eye-opener.  I have often thought of spiritual eyes and how the Light of Christ affects our vision.  When I read a phrase like “eyes of understanding” or “a vision opened up” I see things differently than I did before.  In a classroom discussion when one of the students asked if any of our Church leaders have seen Jesus, a whole new field opened up to me.  I thought, “If one of those leaders happened to not have physical sight, would it make any difference?”  Of course it would not.  Blind people can see God as well as sighted people.  That gift of vision comes through The Holy Ghost.  I have an increased awareness of my surroundings through a different kind of sight.  I often feel deep gratitude for having had the experience of seeing the bigger picture.  Truly, the blind can lead the sighted.