Book Review - MEE Speaks by Mary Ellen Edmunds

When I went to the Philippines to serve my mission in 1969, the church there was new, only 3000 members.  Among the members, many kept asking me if I knew Sister Mary Ellen Edmunds.  Though the name sounded familiar, I had never met her.  Over the two years of my mission I was astonished at how many people, even in far flung places, members and non-members a like, inquired after this, obviously very unique and influential person.  She arrived in the Philippines in 1963 and I arrived six years later.  Still, she was very much on the minds of many!  How they loved her!  I wondered about Sister Edmunds often.  How remarkable that she remained so important to them after so many years.

Upon my return to BYU in the fall of 1971, I reclaimed my part-time position as head custodian at the Smith Family Living Center on campus.  I cleaned the heads.  One of the restrooms was a private one in an office in the Nursing Department.  There, upon a desk, stood a name plate with the name of Mary Ellen Edmunds on it.  Aha!  So that's how the name was so familiar to me!  She was still occupying that office two years later.  Since my shift was from four to seven in the morning, still, I never met her.

In the event that I had carried some sort of parasite home from the islands, BYU requested that I provide a stool sample to the Student Health Center.  I was given a little box to bring it in.  As I awkwardly crossed the campus with my little box I noticed dozens of others toting their little boxes too.  All this foreign poop converging in one place.  Seemed pretty ominous to me!  A few days later I went back to see a doctor and discuss the results of their tests upon my residue.  The Doctor was Dr. Edmunds.  I asked if he might be related to Mary Ellen and it turns out he was her father.  I was pleased to tell him of the profound influence his daughter still held on the hearts and minds of so many Filipinos.

At Conference time, I was anxious to see my old missionary pals and went to my Mission Reunion in Salt Lake City.  It was then, that I finally met this remarkable sister.  I expected her to be ten feet tall or some other equally remarkable form of extraordinary. I was quite surprised, after someone pointed her out, to find her to appear just as ordinary as the rest of us.  When I finally found her alone I ventured to introduce myself.  I reported to her of the frequent loving inquires I had entertained in her behalf.  Her eyes glistened with tears and then she giggled.  Her expression was a form of joy and attention and love and delight such as I had never experienced!  I can hardly describe how I felt being near her.  She made me feel as if all was right with the world because I was in it.  We chatted for a few moments and reminisced about the Philippines and she seemed especially emotional.  Then she said she felt impressed that she should tell me a story.  

Mary Ellen pointed out that she was single and that she longed to return to the mission field.  She said she had thought it impossible to do that until she was retired but that she could think of nothing else.  She considered going to her Bishop and sending in papers as she had done before.  But then she thought, "I want this to be a call from the Lord."  So she told no one but God.  In fasting and prayer she humbly made herself available to serve as God wished.  And then she told me that on that very morning she had received a letter from The President of the Church, calling her to serve as a health services missionary back in the PI!

I was astonished!  I couldn't comprehend the power of her faith, her love, her humility.  What I could comprehend was why, after so many years she had been so lovingly remembered by so many.  And I could see why God had heard and answered her prayers.  As a missionary, she is priceless!

Funny way to start a book review eh?  Well now you can see why I read her book when I discovered it.  It was a good book, full of faith, well worth reading.  Still, Mary Ellen, like Nephi, can't quite put in written words, the profound effect that comes of hearing her voice.  When MEE (her initials) Speaks there is something so bright, and cheerful and hopeful and kind and optimistic and humble that you can't help wondering if you aren't hearing the voice of God.

Read the book! It has a ton of encouragement and contains wonderful messages of hope and faith; but if you get the chance, listen to her speak.  The book contains what she would say but is a poor second for being in attendance when MEE Speaks!

Here's and example:

    

Book Review - Lighten Up! by Chieko Okazaki

I read this book years ago and loved it so much that I framed the cover and hanged it on my study wall.  I remains there today.  This morning I finished my first re-read of this wonderful book and was amazed at how much better prepared I was to receive it's powerful message this time around.

Sister Okazaki was a counselor in the General Relief Society Presidency back in the eighties.  She wrote the book directly to the women who are members of that great organization.  Consequently, far fewer men than women have been exposed to this wonderful woman and her marvelous book.  This is a crying shame.

I recommend it to men all the time and after re-acquainting myself with its message, will be pressing even harder to spread the word.

Here are a few quotes from the book to whet your appetite:

Ideals are stars to steer by.  They are not a stick to beat ourselves with.  (Barbara Smith)

In principles, great clarity.  In practices, great charity.

Don't think the Lord can do without any of your gifts, no matter how you feel about them. 

When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives, along with the command, the love itself.  (Corrie Ten Boom)

Whenever I saw a parent trying too hard to make one child fit the family mold, I flinched a little.  I knew there would be trouble.

Maybe you've received a lot of "shoulds" and "oughts" about your spiritual life.  Do any of these sound familiar?
     You should read the scriptures at the same time every day.
     You should go to the temple once a month.
     You should always wait quietly for the answer after you've prayed.
     You should always accept every calling in the Church.
Well, I have another "should" for you.  Here it is.  Are you ready?
     You should do what works for you.  

These are just a small sampling of the wisdom, insight and encouragement Sister Okazaki offers to the willing reader.  I am profoundly grateful for her counsel.  If you feel burdened by your service in the Kingdom, or your home, or your job, or your life in general read this book!  Or be reminded of Sister Okazaki's counsel:

Christ's burden is light.  When he says, "Learn of me," he wants us to do something that will be light and joyful to us, not heavy and discouraging. 

Just this week I heard someone say in Church that we should set a particular day and time to attend the temple and stick to it.  And that if we don't the devil will keep us from getting there.  I think Cheiko Okazaki might have turned in her grave had she heard that.  First of all, the message was designed to make us feel guilty that we hadn't set that date and actually made it.  Second, it implies that there is nothing on God's green earth that is more important, ever, than keeping that date.  Third, it assumes that Satan is the only one who has influence over us on a day to day basis.  Like there's no way that the Holy Ghost would spontaneously prompt me to go to the Temple.

I have heard that counsel before, and followed it.  And sometimes, not very often, I should have been doing something else that I know in my heart was, at that moment, more important.  It wasn't necessarily something big, more often, it was small, like giving my weary wife a break from three toddlers, but it was, at that moment, what the Lord would rather I do.

In church I would much prefer being joyfully inspired and uplifted, than being shamed and guilt tripped into conforming to someone else's view of perfect performance.  Their prescription for my spirituality is no more a match for mine, than are the prescriptions for our glasses.  Thank you Sister Okazaki for releasing me from the guilt our culture so readily seeks to apply.  Thank you Master, for applying the Balm of Gilead to my wounds and the Atonement to my weakness and for offering to be my yoke-mate.

*****

Book Review - Embracing Coincidence by Carol Lynn Pearson

I have been pretty obsessed with observing the synchronicity in my life lately.  I learned about it from Richard Eyre in his book The Three Deceivers and then got quite excited about it after reading Glenn Beck's description of "bread crumbs" in his book 7 Wonders that Will Change Your Life.  Embracing Coincidence is a collection of personal examples of synchronicity in Carol Lynn Pearson's life.

Over the years I have enjoyed her plays, songs and especially her poetry.  Mostly that all came in our younger years and while I kept some of my favorite stuff by her, I lost track of her.  Her book Will I Ever Forget this Day has greatly influenced my journaling and I wonder if I'd still be keeping a journal were it not for Sister Pearson. 

Now she has guided me to an even loftier platform.  Where Eyre and Beck got me intrigued with the concept of synchronicity, Carol Lynn taught me how to notice it, invite it, enjoy it, learn from it and use it!

Her examples are not monumental, but they are extraordinary; and they make this wonderful means of receiving guidance from God seem so very accessible.  The consequence is that I've come to realize I experience synchronicity all the time.  I've just got to learn to notice and ponder it as it appears.

Carol Lynn also makes it obvious that appreciating and making use of synchronicity increases the likelihood and frequency of it's occurrence.  I'm quite sure that when she set out to write the book, she expected to catalogue past instances of synchronicity in her life.  As it turned out, much of the synchronicity she shares occurred while she was writing the book.

This is a fun nightstand read.  Each example is short and sweet and deserves to be pleasantly slept upon.  

Then there's Carol Lynn herself.  Her candid sharing lets us into the heart of a very unique and marvelous person.  The stores of her life and interaction with the world are completely delightful and inspirational in and of themselves.  She breaks a lot of Molly Mormon Molds as she goes about doing good; and it's fun to see first hand, what righteous living bereft of Pharisaism looks like.  Good on ya Carol Lynn!

*****

Book Review - The History of Love by Nicole Krauss

Sweetie has been begging me to read this book for years.  Why did I wait?  I loved it!

This is wonderful story about a lonely old Jewish Man who lives in New York City.  He is retired and alone and goes about trying to get noticed.  He drops his change, or tips over a store display.  One day he even poses nude for an art class.  Anything to feel less invisible.  His name is Leo Gursky and he has good reason to feel overlooked, passed by - invisible.

It is also about a pugnacious young girl named Alma, whose sole ambition seems to be wilderness survival; and her younger brother Bird, who strongly suspects he might be the messiah or at the very least a Lamed Vovnik.  

It is written from the perspective of Alma and Leo; both of whom I adore.  They are so real and accessible.  Krauss has a wonderful knack for making ordinary people and ordinary circumstances become extraordinary.  And then you discover there is nothing ordinary about their connection and the synchronous way in which their lives come together.   

Leo and Alma fancy themselves writers and they sure made a reader out of me!  It's almost hard to give Nichole Krauss credit for her characters have completely upstaged her.

Some reviewers think the book is convoluted.  I think it is an artistic masterpiece which I will read again!

*****

Book Review - My Grandfather's Blessings by Rachel Naomi Remen

This is my third reading of this most wonderful book!  It won't be my last!

Rachel Naomi Remen speaks to my soul.  Rachel is a very interesting person and though the book is not really a memoir, you certainly come away feeling you know her.  And love her.  She's the granddaughter of a Jewish Rabbi who was driven out of Russia.  She is the daughter of parents she calls Socialistic Atheists.  While she doesn't intimate any personal religious preference, she is deeply spiritual.  Her spirituality is open mindedly drawn from Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Mormonism, Hinduism and life!

She has taught me that every moment is an opportunity to learn, to grow and to bless life; our own and that of others.  She is obviously masterful at doing this and by example freely shares her talent.  I am a better person for having read her book, every single time I read it.

Rachel, unlike so many "gurus" these days, isn't about platitudes and quick fixes.  Her stories are read, gritty (often dealing with death or impending death), yet they are loftily inspiring and accessible.  She was diagnosed with Crohn's disease at the age of sixteen.  Surgery after surgery eventually resulted in the removal of her colon.  Despite that she became a pediatrician.  Later, realizing that she wanted to treat the whole person instead of just the ailing body of her patients, she leapt blindly into a new discipline of a much more whole person medicine.  Not with a mind to challenge conventional medicine, but rather to change it.  She has been influential in doing so.

Life has it's grief and difficulty.  If you are dealing with such things, this book will be a profound blessing to you.  It most certainly has been for me.  It was recommended to me by my own Physician and has been the most important thing he ever did for my emotional, spiritual and physical health.  Legion are the ways I have shared Rachel's light with those around me. Though she wouldn't know me from Adam, I am pleased to call her my friend.

*****