April 24, 2016

Another pretty normal week (I always seem to say that…), with several exceptions.  Friday, Kent (my brother 5 years younger) and his wife Jan came and visited!  They have been in NYC on business all week, and yesterday Kent took the day off to do some sight-seeing and come see us.  They rode the subway from Manhattan and got here at around 11 AM, and we showed them around the office, then walked to lunch at ‘London Lennie’s’, and then went back to our apartment and talked for a couple of hours!  It was great!!  Usually, we see each other at family events, and never get any one-on-one time to actually talk.  It was fun to catch up on family, work and other things, and learn more about New York City from them!  (They come here at least once or twice a year, and had some great ideas on things to do and see, plus tips on how to get Broadway show tickets at a reasonable price.)  It was a great break, and made us excited to see more family and friends!!  Our apartment is small, but there are blow-up mattresses and bedding to sleep 3 or 4 more (even a portable crib).  Just let us know a few hours ahead (Diane says maybe a day or two if you want to eat…)!

The last few months I’ve been thinking a lot about transitions in our lives, and how important they are to all of us.  I’m sure my recent transition from working to retired to missionary has caused these thoughts, but here is a brief synopsis.  It seems so critical to handle transitions correctly (in the Lord’s way)!  If you look at life’s transitions (Aaronic Priesthood to Melchizedek Priesthood, Young Women to Relief Society, high school to college, mission to returned missionary, single to married, married to single, college to working fulltime, childless to parent, working to retired, and so forth), at every transition people can and do get lost!  The natural order of any change (at least in my life) seems to be that your life and schedule are disrupted, and the good things (like scripture reading, study, prayer, etc.) can easily go away.  I believe it’s sort of a subset of the law of entropy, which says (in my words) that everything tends to progress naturally from organization to chaos without outside influence.  With the gospel of Jesus Christ, we are influenced to get those good things back in our lives and keep them there, but it definitely takes some work!  Seems like after every big change in my life I have to work to find a time that works for the important things, and force them back in.  If I don’t, there never seems to be time to read my scriptures (which I’m not nearly as good at as my wife!) or do the other good things I need to do to progress.  Believe it or not, it’s even true on the transition to a fulltime missionary!  Even though there are times set aside for study, there seem to be more things to do than there is time.

Our 40^th wedding anniversary was Friday the 22^nd of April, and I was reminded again how extremely important it is to marry someone who influences you every day to be a better person!!  Diane does that for me, and it’s hard to imagine where I’d be without her!  I don’t think I’m naturally a bad person, but I do tend to laziness in those good things, and she is a great example to me.  It always amazes me that in her spare time, she almost always does useful things (studies, reads something worthwhile, practices another language, works on family history, etc.).  Because of her basic goodness, her influence on me and our family through the eternities is and will be immeasurable!!  I’m so thankful that (even though she played hard to get for a year or more), she agreed to marry me in the temple and be  my wife and the mother of our family!  It’s not a new thought, but I know that that one decision to marry the right person in the right place has blessed my life hugely!!!  I love you, Diane Troutman Williams!!!