Sunday, March 18, 2012

Time Out For Women

I can’t believe that I’ve missed the rest of January and all of February and half of March since I wrote! But I must write about this last Friday and Saturday. I went to Time Out for Women for the second time. The first time was four years ago. It was sooo good and inspiring. It is good for especially young women, I think, who are caught up in being good wives and mothers, who sometimes don’t take time for themselves, to go to things like this. It is also good for older moms and grandmas too. John Bytheway was the first speaker Friday night. He gave such a good talk. He talked about us all being marinated. He said that we become what our surroundings are and if we are marinated in evil and loud “music” and suggestive things, we become those things. Also he said if we are marinated or surrounded with good books, good music and good people we will also become good. He told of his thirteen year old daughter and her science project. She bought eight mice and put four in one cage with classical music and four in another cage with heavy metal music 24/7. She made a maze with card board and had them run it every day. The ones listening to the classical music got better and shorter times consistently. The others didn’t do half as well. The last night of the experiment, she made a gateway/tunnel that led from one cage to the other. The next morning all eight mice were on the side with the classical music. That said volumes.

Macy Robson was the musical artist who preformed Friday night. She told the story of her life thro’ song. She has an amazing voice. Altho’ I hadn’t heard any of her songs before, I thoroughly enjoyed her whole performance. She had grown up in Utah, attended BYU and performed with the BYU Young Ambassadors in Russia, got a degree in music education and performing arts and taught children from preschoolers to middle schoolers. She was married and divorced with no children. She is now married and the mother of two and the step mother of two. She was a joy to listen to.

Saturday we left my house at 7:40 in the morning (Shani picked me up both Friday and Saturday) and got to the Civic Auditorium/IF High School 30 minutes before the doors would open. The line was inside since it had been raining. It wound all the way down the long hall and all the way back up. There were a lot of women there!! The first thing was the musical presentation of Jerico Road. They are four young men who, I think of regular day jobs as well as sing. They look like they are in their 30’s. I had heard of them but not really heard them. I like the way they told us a little about themselves and their families as well as singing. They all have good voices but I liked the way they sounded when they all were singing best. In 2001 they were the Homeless men in Michael McLean’s Forgotten Carols. I don’t know if they are still doing that or not.

The first presenter was Mary Ellen Edmunds. She always does such a good job. She is so funny but spiritual too. She spoke on being good and really good we have to be. She stressed that we shouldn’t compare our good to anyone else’s good. She was a delight to listen to. Kris Belcher was supposed to be our next speaker but she was ill and Emily Watts was the next speaker. She is very funny also. She can really put her point across in spite of the humor. She talked about finishing what we start. Actually completing things even when they are very hard and we don’t think we can do them. She stressed that the Lord is always with us and is there to help us all of the time. We just need to recognize that He is there and waiting for us to ask.

Jerico Road sang again. Then we broke for lunch. We all seven of us (Karen, Shani, Brittany, Marva and her two daughters-in-law, Lanae and Stephanie, and I) piled into Lanae’s van and went to Wendy’s on Yellowstone. That was a good choice. We still had to wait in line for a while but not forever. We got back to the Civic Auditorium in good time.

The next speaker was Merrilee Boyack. She lives in Southern California. She states that her town has been burned out three different times and told of some of the service that she did to help those who had lost everything. She talked about the “power of the moment.” How you can take just five seconds and pay five people a compliment that can make their day and help yourself along the way too. How you can prepare yourself so that you can be ready to help someone when they really need it. She had a new definition for CPR—Caring Plus Response. She pointed out that no matter how much we care, if we don’t respond to do something to help that just the caring isn’t enough. She was very interesting to listen to also.

Our last speaker was Emily Freeman. She looks like a young mother but she has two missionaries out as well as two children still at home. She was an excellent speaker to end with. She talked about “making it thro’ the middle.” She states that when all is said and done and we’ve gotten thro’ our hard times we know what we have and it is good. But she said that it is getting thro’ the middle to the end is the very challenging part. She was so inspirational and left us all teary eyed and thankful we had been there.

It was all a truly good and amazing experience. I’m so thankful that I went. I was able to stand in line for 30-40 minutes without my back absolutely killing me. I enjoyed the company and saw many friends from my ward, FHC, and other places while I was there. It is truly an inspired program. I hope they don’t wait another four years for it to be in Idaho Falls again.