A Walk on the Wild Side

After we had signed up to participate in the "Lion Encounter", George made the mistake of reading the State Department advisory on this particular activity.  My personal opinion is never, ever read the advisories because then you'll never want to travel anywhere.  According to the State Department a woman was mauled by a lion at an encounter near Victoria Falls....hmm.  Do I look nervous?

These lions were trained to be submissive to humans.  Right now they are about 18 months old.  Soon they will figure out that the humans carry a very small stick and really are not that dominate....and then they will be released into a very large but protected area where they will hopefully produce cubs.  These cubs will not come in contact with humans and it is hoped they will be able to be released into the wild.  The lion population in Africa is declining.  The lions from the "Lion Encounter" will help stop the decline.

I loved watching them play.  In every way, except for their size, they are like kittens rolling around, licking and touching each other.

After a bit of instruction we were allowed to pet them.  We were told to talk to them as we approached so as not to startle them.  Never approach from the front as that is considered aggressive and above all don't be nervous. "Hello Miss Lion.  I'm about to touch you and I AM NOT NERVOUS"

See those small sticks we were carrying.  If a lion started looking at us in a 'naughty manner' we were supposed to point the stick at him and in a firm voice say, "No, stop that."  What exactly is a 'naughty manner' you might wonder, well so did we.  This lion is ok. He's not naughty.

This one is sizing me up for her dinner.  Normally a lion looks like he is about half asleep but when their eyes are wide open and staring, you could be in trouble.  I think this pretty girl was just enjoying having her picture taken.

I love this photo.  Camera and I pads, one lion and one small stick to keep  him under control for the paparrezzi! 

Quite a fun 'walk on the wild side'!

Old Dogs - New Tricks

Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?

George and I took a 4 hour basic kayaking class yesterday.  We felt like real Oregonians kayaking in the rain!  Fun times and good memories!  Now we need to plan how to practice our new found skills!

Ultra lights

Flying in ultra lights over Victoria Falls in Zambia was undoubtably one of the highlights of our Africa trip!  I told the pilot that I was nervous and his response was, "Don't worry.  So am I".  The beauty literally took my breath away...well, either the beauty or the height, I'm not sure!

I've never really been scared of heights but George is.  I was so impressed and excited that he also flew over the mighty Zambezi in this little hang glider with a motor!! And he did it with a smile on his face!

There was even a rainbow!  A absolutely perfect, bucket list kind of day that I'll never forget!

Foster Dogs

Remember naughty boy Ace? The toilet paper playing, remote control chewing foster dog we loved for a couple of weeks.......

Ace is now officially a Guide Dog for the Blind....he graduated while we were in Africa and is guiding a lucky guy in California.  We are so happy and so proud!  I knew the toilet paper, remote control episode was just a little blip on his resume!

We have had seven foster guide dogs so far.  Jordana and Howie were our two senior citizen, retired guides.  Tad was the near perfect active guide who just had a short 'vacation' with us. Brock and Cloud were career changed because of health issues.  That means they won't be working Guide Dogs but are much loved pets. Both of them went back to their 'puppy raiser' home.  And Stan and Ace actually graduated and are now companions and guides to two visually impaired people.  There are many things we love about living in Oregon but our association with Guide Dogs for the Blind is near the top of our list!

Mother's Day 2013

I was so lucky to have such a wonderful mother.  She has been gone for 4 years now and I still think of things I wish I could share with her.  My Daddy's sister, Mary and my mother were close friends for about 65 years.  She was like a second mother to me in so many ways. How I wish I could fly down to Little Rock, walk down the stairs at the airport and find my mother standing there waiting for me and Aunt Mary sitting out in the car ready to drive us home, with a stop at the White Pig Inn if I wanted!!!

My recent cancer diagnosis has made me think about these two women a lot!  Do I really believe all I have been taught about "Families are Forever"?  Do I have a testimony of the Plan of Salvation?  Am I sure that they will be waiting for me when I do pass through to the other side?  As I have searched my soul these past weeks I have realized that I can firmly answer yes to all these questions.

I don't think that I am about to die but someday when I do, I am sure that Momma and Aunt Mary will be right there waiting for me with my Daddy and my Grandmas and the two grandpas I never met and my aunts and uncles and cousins.  And the reunion will be joyous!

'Families are Forever' is not just a clever phrase to cross-stitch on a plaque!  It is a divine truth!

One of my favorite pictures...

This picture just speaks to me of all I love about traveling!  The perfect rainbow on our last day at Victoria Falls!  The fun of traveling with George's brother John and his beautiful, sweet, vivacious wife Katherine!  And how much we all love taking photos!  In this picture John is using his new 3D camera. Can't wait to see these photos on their 3D TV!

And it makes me excited for our next travel adventure, where ever and whenever that might be!!!

Hungry, hungry crocodile!

The St. Lucia Estuary had lots of hippos showing off for the tourists.  It is hard to really believe that they are the most dangerous animal in Africa.  Much more sinister looking are these prehistoric monsters sunning on the shore or hunting in the water.

They are camouflaged  pretty nicely on the bank
 As well as in the water.....

 What amazed me was that there were people fishing on the shore! Do you see how close his feet are to the water?  And remember what swims in the water, close to the shore???

 The guide said that occasionally someone decides to cool off by taking a swim in the refreshing water!  And every now and then someone becomes crocodile dinner!

 Seriously??? Fishing and swimming in THIS water!
With these guys lurking about?  

Hippos

A boat ride on the St. Lucia Estuary to see crocodiles, hippos, and birds was one of the fun days on our recent trip.  It was a real life "Jungle Boat" ride.....

Our first view of the hippos was this and as typical tourist we got very excited.  Probably 100's of photos were taken of these 'bumps in the river'.

 We had no idea how close we were going to get.

Nor what kind of a show they were going to put on for us!

Our guide said that they were young males sparring!  Looked pretty intense but they kept at it for close to an hour as the cameras snapped away!

Just how wide can you open your mouth Big Fella???

Although this looks like an elephant tusk, it is actually a hippo tooth!  I had no idea!

More people are killed in Africa by hippos than by any other animal.  St. Lucia, the little town by this estuary bears the distinction of being the only town in the world whose citizens regularly find hippos in their gardens!  Now that would be quite a shock!!!!

 To give an idea of how things change over the course of a couple of weeks - on one of our last days a friend looked into the river and said, "What is that in the river?" I glanced out the window and said, "It's a hippo" and there was no reaction at all from anyone in the bus.  No camera came out of bags. These was no chorus of 'ooh's and ahh's'...nothing!  How quickly the amazing becomes common place!

Welcome to the club!!!!

My friend who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer said it well, "Welcome to the club no one wants to be a member of!"  I'm now a member of the "I have cancer club".  It still shocks me to think that thought.  Of course I am sure that each of the 692,000 women who join this club every year and the 745,180 men (2008 stats) feel exactly as I do.  Only 4% of the women have thyroid cancer and only 5% of them have medullary thyroid cancer like I do.  So about 1384 cases like mine are diagnosed each year.  I like to be unique!  I've always felt some pride in my boring medical history; well it is boring no longer!

The surgeon reported that there was no lymph node involvement also that the tumor was small (1.5 cm) and came out very easily.  All that is good news.  So I am stage 1.  According to the stats 5 year survival rate for this type of cancer at this stage is 100%!  So I am lucky.  This morning I had blood work to get a base line of something called calcitonin.  In a couple of months, I'll be tested again and the amount of calcitonin should be going down and should keep going down.  As long as it keeps decreasing I'm great.  If that number goes up then they will have to do more tests.  My doctor says with my generally good health and the stage of the tumor she has every reason to give me an 'excellent prognosis'!

So I'm happy today!  I'm busy planning a fall 60th birthday trip to hopefully see our beloved FC Barcelona play soccer in Barcelona!  And thinking of starting teaching seminary again in a 10 days.  Life is good!

"I like living.  I have sometimes been wilding despairing, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing." 

Agatha Christie, An Autobiography.

Rules

I have always considered myself a rule follower.  Maybe this picture proves that assumption wrong!

George says that I am a selective rule follower.  If the rule makes sense to me I follow it.  I have a  fear of getting run over so I never jaywalk....that seems logical to me.  Taking candy into the movie theatre instead of buying the outrageously priced theatre candy....that is ok even though the signs expressly forbid it!  Going past the 'Do Not Go Beyond This Point' sign...that is fine because I really wanted the picture!

This probably goes well with my "Spiritual Crocodiles" post!  Where would I have been safest?  On the other side of the sign obviously!  Oops!

Spiritual Crocodiles

In 1976 one of our church leaders, Boyd K Packer gave a talk that has become a classic!  It is entitled "Spiritual Crocodiles.  While on a church assignment in Africa near Victoria Falls, he had a day to visit one of Africa's famous animal reserves where in his words, 'the people are put in cages and the animals are left to run free.' He goes on to describe his experience:

We stopped at a water hole to watch the animals come to drink. It was very dry that season and there was not much water, really just muddy spots. When the elephants stepped into the soft mud the water would seep into the depression and the animals would drink from the elephant tracks.

The antelope, particularly, were very nervous. They would approach the mud hole, only to turn and run away in great fright. I could see there were no lions about and asked the guide why they didn’t drink. His answer, and this is the lesson, was “Crocodiles.”

I knew he must be joking and asked him seriously, “What is the problem?” The answer again: “Crocodiles.”

“Nonsense,” I said. “There are no crocodiles out there. Anyone can see that.”

I thought he was having some fun at the expense of his foreign game expert, and finally I asked him to tell us the truth. Now I remind you that I was not uninformed. I had read many books. Besides, anyone would know that you can’t hide a crocodile in an elephant track.

He could tell I did not believe him and determined, I suppose, to teach me a lesson. We drove to another location where the car was on an embankment above the muddy hole where we could look down. “There,” he said. “See for yourself.”

I couldn’t see anything except the mud, a little water, and the nervous animals in the distance. Then all at once I saw it!—a large crocodile, settled in the mud, waiting for some unsuspecting animal to get thirsty enough to come for a drink.

Suddenly I became a believer! When he could see I was willing to listen, he continued with the lesson. “There are crocodiles all over the park,” he said, “not just in the rivers. We don’t have any water without a crocodile somewhere near it, and you’d better count on it.”
The guide was kinder to me than I deserved. My “know-it-all” challenge to his first statement, “crocodiles,” might have brought an invitation, “Well, go out and see for yourself!”I could see for myself that there were no crocodiles. I was so sure of myself I think I might have walked out just to see what was there. Such an arrogant approach could have been fatal! But he was patient enough to teach me.

My young friends, I hope you’ll be wiser in talking to your guides than I was on that occasion. That smart-aleck idea that I knew everything really wasn’t worthy of me, nor is it worthy of you. I’m not very proud of it, and I think I’d be ashamed to tell you about it except that telling you may help you.

Those ahead of you in life have probed about the water holes a bit and raise a voice of warning about crocodiles. Not just the big, gray lizards that can bite you to pieces, but spiritual crocodiles, infinitely more dangerous, and more deceptive and less visible, even, than those well-camouflaged reptiles of Africa.These spiritual crocodiles can kill or mutilate your souls. They can destroy your peace of mind and the peace of mind of those who love you. Those are the ones to be warned against, and there is hardly a watering place in all of mortality now that is not infested with them.

Our recent trip to Africa was not during a time of drought.  In fact the river was full and many animals  eager to drink.  Yet from our boat we observed a nervous group of impala.  Can you see what is lurking in the river?

Yep a crocodile!  As I reflected on this and on President Packer's talk I couldn't help but think of the differences between now and 1976.  Yes there were spiritual crocodiles then as there are now but now they hide in what appears to be 'mainstream' places.  Pornography is the perfect example of this.  While in 1976 there was pornography, you had to go in search of it and buy a book or a magazine to find it.  It didn't come unbidden into your home on TV, computers and smart phones.  Now so much that can be a dangerous 'spiritual crocodile' is considered the norm and just a part of life.  We who warn against such dangers are considered too old fashioned and too close minded and too conservative and too judgmental; we supposedly aren't tolerant! No question in my mind that we can't be tolerant of spiritual crocodiles!   Sometimes we think that we can get close to the danger yet avoid it.  Imagine the thirsty impala taking a quick sip from the river but trusting that he is fast enough and smart enough and agile enough to avoid the crocodile.  Maybe he is, but maybe not.  Definitely the safest place is far away from the danger, in the middle of the herd!

President Packer's talk goes on to give the solution for staying safe from spiritual crocodiles and that advice is every bit as timely now as it was 37 years ago.

Some of us are appointed now, as you will be soon, to be guides and rangers. Now we don’t use those titles very much. We go under the titles of parents—father and mother—bishop, leader, adviser. Our assignment is to see that you get through mortality without being injured by these spiritual crocodiles. All of the training and activity in the Church has as its central purpose a desire to see you, our young people, free and independent and secure, both spiritually and temporally.

If you will listen to the counsel of your parents and your teachers and your leaders when you are young, you can learn how to follow the best guide of all—the whisperings of the Holy Spirit. That is individual revelation. There is a process through which we can be alerted to spiritual dangers. Just as surely as that guide warned me, you can receive signals alerting you to the spiritual crocodiles that lurk ahead.

If we can train you to listen to these spiritual communications, you will be protected from these crocodiles of life. You can learn what it feels like to be guided from on high. This inspiration can come to you now, in all of your activities, in school, and dating—not just in your Church assignments.

Learn how to pray and how to receive answers to your prayers. When you pray over some things, you must patiently wait a long, long time before you will receive an answer. Some prayers, for your own safety, must be answered immediately, and some promptings will even come when you haven’t prayed at all. Once you really determine to follow that guide, your testimony will grow and you will find provisions set out along the way in unexpected places, as evidence that someone knew that you would be traveling that way.

The basic exercise for you to perform in your youth to become spiritually strong and to become independent lies in obedience to your guides. If you will follow them and do it willingly, you can learn to trust those delicate, sensitive, spiritual promptings. You will learn that they always, invariably, lead you to do that which is righteous.