What would you do with an Extra Day added to your life?

TODAY IS LEAP YEAR DAY...

We are given an extra day to our calendar, to our life.

 "Come unto me and ye shall partake of the fruit of the tree of life;

yea, ye shall eat and drink of the bread and the waters of life freely."

Alma 5: 34

I posted a similiar photo to this a few months ago.

http://davidkat99.blogspot.com/2011/10/solitiary-tree.html

I took this photo on the west side of Utah Lake on a drive in between General Conferences Session last fall. This photo includes the barbwire fence that is symbolically keeping us away from the "Tree of Life." 

How would you spend your day if you were given an extra day added to your life in mortality?.. What would you do with it? Who would you spend it with?

Hard question to answer.. but I think if I had an extra day.. and I had not yet had the opportunity to partake of the Tree of Life, like Lehi did with his family...I think I would spend my day cutting down the barbwires that keep me from reaching that tree and leading my family there and partaking of the fruit together.

I think we spend most of our mortal life on the opposite side of the barbwire fence.     

MOUNTAIN, PYRAMID, TEEPEE:

This is a photo of Lands End Mountain in Montrose, CO. 

I hiked to the top of this mountain over a year ago. 

The photo was sent to me by a friend who lives in Montrose.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is a redrock formation which looks alot like a pyramid. Its located at the mouth of Snow Canyon. 

Photo taken on February 18, 2012

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is taken at the base of the Anasazi Petroglyphs in Santa Clara, UT. I recieved permission to spend a night with my family and sleep inside the teepee. Photo taken on February 19, 2012

I will write more shortly about what all three have in common.

THE SUN: Seal of Melchizedek

photo taken at a friends home in St. George on February 18, 2012

I took this picture down at our friends home in St. George. There is alot of symbolism that I saw in and around their house. This particular sun is on the outside of their home. It faces east to see the morning sun. It also is symbolic of the seal of Melchizedek.

I first learned about the seal of Melchizedek from Hugh Nibley's book, Temple and Cosmos: It is two offset, intersecting squares.  (sometimes seen with a circle or dot in the center of the two squares symbolic of the fixed, or sure place.)

The seal  is the universal symbolism of balance, harmony, and cosmic order. Its pattern is associated with early astronomy and ancient religion. It is symbolic of both stars and humanity’s earliest attempts to understand and communicate the order and unity inherent in the Creation.
The seal also is symbolic of an eight-point star. Eight also means renewal, and rebirth The eight lines are symbolic of the four corners of space (north, south, east, and west) and time (two solstices and two equinoxes)

STAR GAZING (not to be confused with Oscar Night in Hollywood)

Photos taken tonight on February 26, 2012

ALIGNMENT of PLANETS (Jupiter and Venus) AND THE MOON..

the Big Dipper above Mount Olympus taken on Wasatch Boulevard

The big dipper to the left and the bright star on the right which is Mars.

While most people were watching the "brightest stars" in Hollywood at the Oscars... there were heavenly stars or brightest planets in the solar system that lined up in the evening sky last night. The planets Venus and Jupiter  were visible in the western evening sky at sunset on Sunday, with the crescent moon hovering nearby. The planet Mercury was also visible briefly just after sunset before slipping below the horizon,. and the planet Mars is also was visible in the east a few hours after sunset.

While most the day was somewhat hazy, it was an a tender mercy to have the clouds dissipate to view the heavens last night. I was grateful to get a few nice photos of the planets, moon and other constellations like the Big Dipper.

SYMMETRY and CONTRAST

photo taken about a hundred yards from the home we stayed at with friends 

over President's Day weekend on February 18, 2012

"For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things."

2 Nephi 2:11

If you look at the photo, most would see just a desert landscape. Few might notice any symbolism in it, let alone see the symmetry or the contrasts. Here are just a few things to notice.

The contrasts(opposites) and the symmetry (balance):

• The top half of the photo is sky, the air is invisible to our eyesight, yet the substance is everpresent. (Heaven Above)
• The bottom half of the photo is land, the ground is solid, and tangible. (Earth Below)
• On the bottom half there is vegetation.
• The top half is solid and immovable rock.
• The left half of the red rock is in the Light. The right half of the red rock mountain is Dark. There is a canyon, or gulf that divides the two.

What is interesting to me is that there are clouds that appear on the red rock mountains in the Light. The air/gas has taken a form and descended down onto the high elevations of the earth.

Sidenote:
We usually misquote the above scripture by saying "there must be opposition in all things". We drop the "an" which changes the meaning. As quoted in 2 Nephi it simply means there must be a choice - good or bad, holiness or misery, etc. The way we misinterpret the scripture makes it sound like there always has to be a trial or difficulty. The test is simply are we going to choose the good - or the bad?

ADAM and EVE? ...The Anasazi Petroglyphs in Southwest Utah

photo taken February 19, 2012 of Anasazi Petroglyphs near Kayenta, Utah

in the southwest desert by Snow Canyon

"But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty,

so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ."

2 Corinthians 11:3

My family with our dear friends spent some time this past weekend exploring an ancient dwelling site of the Anasazi Indians. The word "Anasazi" means "the Ancient Ones" or the "Old Ones." This petroglyph site is near Kayenta, Utah which we learned was a sacred site dedicated by Elder Vaughn J Featherstone back in 1988.

In an LDS Church News article about the dedication, Elder Featherstone said, "I think after death, we don't wander far from where we lived on this earth. I think the ancient Lamanites that once inhabited this valley are nearby."

In above photo of one of the petroglyphs, there are two central figures.. a man and a woman. In my opinion, the figures could possibly be depicting Adam and Eve.  Below the woman on the lower left appears a fallen man who looks to be holding a serpent. This serpent appears to be biting (bruising) the heal of Eve. In the upper right, appears another figure, possibly a royal King or Supreme Being, since the figure appears to have a crown upon his head. Could these petroglyphs be depicting the first story of Adam and Eve and the Fall?

I was able to speak with an 80 year Anasazi man who lives on the site about the petroglyphs and the surrounding area. He said the petroglyphs tell the story of the history of the world.. of the past, present and future. Here is short video of him offering a prayer song to us with his drums. When I asked him what the meaning of the song was.. he said.. "We walk the same path where our Creator walked long ago."

PRESIDENTS DAY and THE MORMON BATTALION FLAG

Photo of the Mormon Battalion Flag that I took in the office of Eldred G Smith,

the Presiding Patriarch of the Church. He has the one and only original.

President's Day it is meant to honor and remember the past presidents of the U.S. and their contributions to creating the country it is today. Advocates in the 1960′s wanted to honor both Washington and President Abraham Lincoln, whose birthday is February 12, on a single federal holiday. February 22 is President George Washington’s actual birthday. Oh, how caliber of Presidents have changed over the years since our Founding Fathers.

I mentioned in an early post that I spent some time with Eldred Smith in his office. I haven't felt that I should share publically much of what was discussed, but thought it would be appropriate to share the following.

Eldred Smith has in his possession the original flag used in the Mormon Battalion. John Smith (Hyrum's oldest son, and Eldred's great grandfather was a standard bearer. It is nine feet long. The flag has the stars and stripes like the American flag.. If you look closely.. the flag used to have the beehive painted in the blue square with 13 stars surrounding the hive (representative of bees) However, an eagle was painted over the hive to best show the allegiance to the United States. He has a photo of him holding the flag while sitting on a horse. Flag was within one foot of the ground. The flag has no sewing on it. It is painted on one piece of linen. It was originally to be the flag of Deseret and they painted over it to become a military flag. Not only was an eagle was painted over the beehive, but the California bear was painted on the center. The words LIFE GUARDS were painted on it. The battalion carried it to California and back.

Early latterday saints really were not "uber" Americas and did not have the allegiance to man made government, but had the goal to bring the Lord's Zion and His government of peace to the earth. However, it seems like The United States literally beat the Church into submission. Now the Church is uber-American. The truest of true American institutions. Many years later in the early 1900's The Republican Party beat the Church into submission during the Smoot Senate Confirmation hearings. Now the Church is uber-Republican. The reddest of red states is Utah.

With each of these events the greater historical pressures on the Church have affected how we have developed. And we continue to develop. Slowly and unpercieved, mind you, but we develop nonetheless.

Gradualism is the way in which even glaciers move. Eventually, however, even glaciers begin to melt when they reach warmer climates.

DAUGHTERS OF GOD

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY TO MY BEAUTIFUL FAMILY.

"Thou shalt love thy wife with all thy heart, and shalt cleave unto her and none else."

Doctrine and Covenants 42:22

.......................

Behold, their husbands love their wives, and their wives love their husbands;

and their husbands and their wives love their children.

Jacob 3:7

I am a blessed man. I live in a home of angels.Grateful to all that the Lord has blessed me with. A friend of mine gave the following Valentine's Day advice. Instead of spending money at an expensive restaurant, or buying the biggest teddy bear, chocolates, and/or jewelry, he said, " in rebellion against the commercialism of our day, make it an act or write a poem (or if you're incapable of that then a letter), or show some kindness instead of making a purchase."

Well in addition to shaving my beard this morning (my act of kindness to my wife), I thought I would write a Valentine's Blog/Poem to my wife and 4 daughters.  

Roses are Red,

Violets are Blue.

You are beautiful daughters of God

and Your Father loves you.

D&C 88:90 The voice of the waves of the sea heaving themselves beyond their bounds

DISCLAIMER: I did not take this photos.

Spectacular "cloud tsumani" rolls over Florida on February 5, 2012

http://photoblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/10/10375026-spectacular-cloud-tsunami-rolls-over-florida-high-rise-condos


I don't have much to say about this, other than when I first saw these images  come across my computer screen, I immediately had this scripture come to mind in Moses 3:5

" For I, the Lord God, created all things, of which I have spoken, spiritually, before they were naturally upon the face of the earth."

I have been reading a book called "The Harbinger" written by Jonathon Cahn. It is an important book to read if one is not familiar with promises (and curses) assosiated with this Promised Land we call America. We are currently walking a very dangerous path in light of the parallels shown in scripture.

ELDRED G. SMITH: Presiding Patriarch to the Church

photo taken on February 7, 2012 ( one month after his 105th Birthday)

photo taken in Eldred's office of the photographs of his patriarchal lineage back to Hyrum Smith.

I will write more shortly

EFFECTS OF LIGHT

photo taken on January 22, 2012

"At midday, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun,

shining round about me and them which journeyed with me."

Acts 26:13

It is fairly unusual to see a rainbow effect in the sky at midday without a rain storm. I took this photo up Big Cottonwood after driving farther than I had planned on to take other  photographs for a previous post.

We hear the terms "further light and knowledge" quite frequently in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is an interesting phrase. It seems that most in this world would rather seek for "further wealth and security" or at least "further entertainment and pleasure".

 I recently read an scripture in 3 Nephi 27: 32:

"But behold, it sorroweth me because of the fourth generation from this generation, for they are led away captive by him even as was the son of perdition; for they will sell me for silver and for gold, and for that which moth doth corrupt and which thieves can break through and steal. And in that day will I visit them, even in turning their works upon their own heads."

.

The Lord is prophesying in this verse about the future generations who received the fullness of the gospel and had the opportunity to build  a Zion society. The three generations following the Lord's visit to America were righteous, had all things in common...  but something happened in the fourth generation... they sell out "Christ" for silver and gold... they seek out further wealth and security instead of further light and knowledge.

Does history always repeat? What are we seeking after? One might say that we are in the fourth generation after the restoration of the fullness was given to Joseph Smith. (Parley P Pratt, is my great great grandpa. I think that makes me a fourth generation from him.) 

  

Anyway.. the important questions are how do we receive further light and knowledge. What does that even mean? Is this something we should and are seeking after on a personal daily basis?