OCR Text |
Show -NEWS- Spanish Fork Covering what matters most Cost of food Creating visions Life After Birth Janene Baadsgaard Sometimes you look back and think about the people who had the greatest impact for good in your life. When someone sees something more in you than you see in yourself, they change your future. I took Drawing 101 at Brigham Young University back in the 1970*s from a graduate student. Though I don't even remember his name, I will never forget his gentle mentoring. At the time I was working several jobs to put myself through college. I had space in my schedule for one elective course and signed up for an art class. After the first assignment was completed on the first day of class, I compared my work to all the other students. I quickly discovered I was enrolled in an art class where everyone else already knew how to draw very well. Go figure. I guess they were all looking for an easy A. I, on the other hand, took the class to learn how to draw. This teacher gave us a new assignment each week to complete outside of class. I was a hungry student and often experimented with my drawing homework. I found that trying to produce something with my unskilled hands that even came close , to what I saw with my eyes and felt with my heart was difficult. Yet at the same time this attempt was a gentle lesson in awareness. Drawing required singular focus, time and patience. I had to quit "thinking" about drawing and allow myself to see and feel everyday objects with new detail, appreciation and wonder. Janene Baadsgaard This master instructor taught me how to view the world from a different perspective. For example he would crumple up a piece of paper, set it on a table and shine a light on it. Then he would ask us to draw the shadows — not the paper. Or, he would ask class members to draw two minute flash portraits of fellow students to force us to draw out and develop abilities untapped by our usual consciousness. These drawing exercises allowed me to view my everyday surroundings in a fresh way, for I was learning to pay attention to the intricate details of form, shape, light and shadow. I carried a pad and pencil everywhere and sketched whenever I had a spare moment. I began to more fully notice and appreciate the small and large wonders all around me — like tiny blades of dew covered grass or leafless tree silhouettes backed by a flaming sunset at dusk. At'the end of the semester, each student was invited out in the hall one at a time. Then we were asked to open our portfolio and told to display our work for the teacher. I placed my pictures side by side on the floor in the long hall next to WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18, 2008 • A? our classroom and waited. The teacher slowly walked down the hall, carefully studied each picture then turned and looked me directly in the eye. "Janene," he said with a broad smile, "you are the only student in my class who has earned an A." I was dumbfounded. "Why?" I asked, confused. "Why are you giving me an A when everybody else in this class draws so much better?" "Because," he answered, "you are the only true artist in this class. The other students know techniques that reproduce camera-like copies. You are the only one who had the courage to fail, the only one who took risks, the only one who did more than I asked and the only one who explored your soul. You are a fine artist. It doesn't matter what art form you choose after you leave my class — for I know you will bring light, life and beauty to this world all your days." This gentle teacher saw something in me I did not see in myself. I have lived a different life because his vision of me opened up a new vision of myself. Janene Baadsgaard is the author of many humorous and heartwarming books for families including Families Who Laugh . . . Last, On the Roller Coaster Called Motherhood, Winter's Promise, Financial Freedom for LDS Families, The LDS Mother's Ahnanac and her most recent publication 15 Secrets to a Happy Home - available at local book stores or on-line at HYPERLINK "http://www.springcreekbooks.com" www.springcreekbooks.com. She can be reached at janenebaadsgaard@juno.com. Ready or Not Dawn Van Nosdol I get up very early in the morning (4 a.m. in the summer and 5 a.m. in the winter) to get ready for work. While putting on my makeup and doing my hair, I like to watch the morning news. During the winter months I watch the local news, but during the summer 4 a.m. is even too early for the local news people. The only ones nutty enough to be up at that hour are the national and world news agencies. I love watching the local news because I can keep up with what is going on locally and know what the weather is going to-be (well, maybe for a whole 10 minutes — after all we do live in Utah). But listening to worldwide events gives you a whole new perspective on your day to day life. The point of this news report is that I get a whole different kind of news in the summertime. I was listening this morning to the world news and of course one of the big topics was the cost of gas, and how so many people are suffering worldwide, not just here in the United States. The biggest problem worldwide, is not so much the escalating gas prices making it difficult to fill their gas tanks, no — it is the cost of food. Most of the people that the newscasters talked about don't even own cars, but they do eat, and the cost of food has risen outrageously high because the cost of producing the food has risen. The reporter talked about a. third world country where the average person's wage for the day, that used to be able to feed the whole family, is now only enough to buy a day's worth of food for one person. If you have a dad, a mom and three young children, well, you do the math — they are pretty desperate. Gas prices are affecting the price of everything; it is definitely more expensive to live these days. Another part of the problem is that there is a food shortage in many parts of the world because of fuel prices, drought, pests, crop failure, wars and other sometimes-freak weather events. Fortunately we live in a place that has no food shortage, and as expensive as it is to go shopping'for food, at least we have it available. The more that I listen to the news, the more grateful I am that I have the desire to build my food storage, I have access to healthy fresh food and the ability to grow my own garden to help defray the cost of fresh fruits and vegetables. My mother was just a very small girl when WWII was raging, but she still remembers the food rationing and how difficult it was for her mother, while her father was away serving in the military. Most of the people who lived during the depression are no longer with us. Basically, several generations, living here in the safety of the United States, have lived lives free of forced deprivation. I sometimes wonder if we as a nation are up to going through really challenging times. I really hope that we take on the challenge and as the saying goes, "endure to the end" gracefully. It is a good time to re-evaluate our lifestyles and what we need to change in order to keep our families intact and our sanity in check. Of course, if we keep our debts under control and have our food storage built up and know how to use it, we will be able to endure difficult times a lot easier. The whole idea behind being prepared is making life more livable and easier when life gets hard. So, while we still have plenty of food available, let's get moving and get prepared — and get your water stored. Or, maybe I should go stick my head in the sand and stop watching the early morning news. Living on a farm: As soon as you could tell the difference between a weed and beet, you were hired to Along with the rain and work in thefields.And if you the springflowers,the weeds lived on a farm, you were have also grown. I was out hired whether you wanted to pulling a few weeds the other be or not. It was just a fact of day and I was able to identify living on a farm. Everyone a few. There was some white pitched in to help with the top, red root, marshmallow, work. If we turned the clock Johnson grass, wild lettuce back about 60 years, many of and the always present kosher us would be in the beet field weeds. We also have a lot of at this time of the year doing those miserable puncture what our Dad's called, "reweeds —" the ones that flatten thinning." Although the beets bike tires and go through the had been thinned once it was soles of athletic shoes! Have important to go through the you stepped on those? They field again to make sure there feel like a needle! weren't any doubles. Each I'll bet there are many family membeF was given kids today who don't know a long handled hoe and we the names of weeds. That was walked the rows again to pull ene of the main lessons we out any weeds. learned when thinning beets. And then — when the From WEEDS • A2 beets were re-thinned, we did the same thing in the corn fields except the only thing there was to cut out any weeds between the corn stalks. I'm sure many of you remember your dad cultivating the corn and being able to get most of the weeds between the rows, but it took a handy hoe to get between the stalks. I guess weeds are a part of our lives, like it or not. Sometimes weeding is good therapy when we're looking for a way to vent some frustration. Just grab hold and yank them out, roots and all! A belated Happy Father's Day to all you fathers! Sometimes we don't know what to do with you, but we don't know what we'd do without you! tO Our valued customers for w,flteliA,g us the area's. #± restaurant. j)gg North From 'Doc Francis and Staff Riheanna Jones, Steven Rush, Colton Samples, Emma Lope; onnie Lowe, Mckenzie Ludlow, Haley Barlow, Serena Benisf oily Swasey, Brady Jackson, Braiden Breaux, Emily Powell )bby Nielson, Parker Shuman, Austin Simkins, SamantfiJ ilder, Pat Booth, Zajit Espinoza, Tyler Burgener, Lindsay Myers Jielby Adams I Karl M. Francis, DDS, PC J 7 5 West Center St., Spanish Fork • (801) 798-8226 • docfrancisjgm 4S to have those |