Pop passed away

Hello, my faithful readers.  I apologize for the absence of new reading material on my blog.  I have been dealing with some tough things.  Pop passed away on Saturday, the day before Easter, which in the Judeo-Christian history,  is Passover…  Needless to say, Easter will never be the same.  My dad passed very peacefully, however, and wasn’t uncomfortable or in pain.  He fell asleep and, at around noon on Saturday, went back to Heavenly Father’s kingdom.  It’s been a very exhausting and intense time for my family, even though we all know that everyone must eventually make that transition from life to death on Earth.  Yesterday, Easter, we had a dinner at Mom’s.  I’m not sure what kind of dinner it was.  It wasn’t your average dinner, if you can imagine the circumstances at all, but there was a lot of smiling and laughter amongst the members of my family.  I was glad.  I, myself, had to take a break from it all a couple of times – once just to get over some of my own grief that began to finally come on, and once to sleep because I’ve been living at the hospital for the last 10 days.

I went to Sacrament meeting yesterday and fell apart when the opening hymn was sung.  “Christ the Lord is Risen Today”,  Hymn #200 in the current hymnbook.  I tried to keep it together, but just couldn’t.  I stayed just long enough to partake of the Sacrament and then left.  On my way out of the parking lot, I kept stopping my truck, getting out, and throwing the nightcrawlers (earthworms) back into the grass so that they wouldn’t dry out or get run over on the  pavement.  They were all out on the asphalt because it had rained quite hard the night before.  It took me a good 15 minutes to get out of the parking lot.  I had such a feeling of compassion for these creatures, and it was something I did both out of that compassion for all living creatures, and because it’s something that my pop would have done.  At first, I only picked up the few that were near my truck and tossed them back into the grass.  At that point, I was still counting how many I had rescued.  I got in my truck, rolled a few feet, and saw some more, so I got out and rescued a few more.  Then I began to see how many there were and I didn’t want to run over a single one that could be saved, so I would roll a few feet in the light rain, stop my truck, and rescue the earthworms, then get back in my truck, roll a bit further in it, and get out to rescue some more.  I wasn’t counting anymore.  I just wanted to rescue all the earthworms I could.  I then realized that I wasn’t counting, and that counting them was of no consequence whatsoever.  I was glad I had lost count.  I always found one more to save.  I then thought of Jesus Christ.  I doubt that He, with the exception of gathering every salvagable one, counts his sheep in any manner except one-by-one.  Jesus would have died for just one of us.  The Savior died for all of us, but he rescues us one at a time, just like picking earthworms up off the pavement and returning them to safety where they can live.

Now, I realize that you may think me a bit off, perhaps just plain crazy, for being so obsessed with the earthworms in the parking lot yesterday, but the Lord used them to teach me something, show me something about myself, and reassure me that my pop is in good hands.  I understand that today is Earth Day, too.  So go save a life, even if it’s “just” an earthworm’s…