Spring Thaw Ball

When I was a deacon, I loved baseball.
In fact, I still do.
I had a fielder's glove inscribed with the name Mel Ott.
He was the premier player of my day.
My friends and I would play ball in a small alleyway behind the houses where we lived.
Our playing field was cramped, but all right, provided you hit straightaway to center field.
However, if you hit the ball to the right of center, disaster was at the door.
Here lived Mrs. Shinas, who, from her kitchen window, would watch us play; and as soon as the ball rolled to her porch, her large dog rolled to her porch, her large dog would retrieve the ball and present it to her as she opened the door.
Into her house Mrs. Shinas would return and add this ball to the many she had previously confiscated.
She was our nemesis, the destroyer of our fun-even the bane of our existence.
None of us had a good word for Mrs. Shinas, but we had plenty of bad words for her.
None of us would speak to her, and she never spoke to us.
She was hampered by a stiff leg which impaired her walking and must have caused her great pain.
She and her husband had no children, lived secluded lives, and rarely came out of their house.

This private war continued for some time--perhaps two years--and then as inspired thaw melted the ice of winter and brought a springtime of good feelings to the stalemate.

One evening as I performed my daily task of watering our front lawn, holding the nozzle of the hose in the hand as was the style at the time, I noticed that Mrs. Shinas's lawn was dry and beginning to turn brown.
I honestly don't know, brethren, what came over me, but I took a few more minutes and, with our hose, watered her lawn.
I continued to do this throughout the summer, and then when autumn came I hosed her lawn free of leaves as I did ours and stacked the leaves in piles at the street's edge to be gathered.
During the entire summer I had not seen Mrs. Shinas.
We boys had long since given up laying ball in the alleyway.
We had run out of baseballs and had no money to buy more.

Early one evening, Mrs. Shinas's front door opened, and she beckoned for me to jump the small fence and come to her front porch.
This I did.
As I approached her, she invited me into her living room, where I was asked to sit in a comfortable chair.
she treated me to cookies and milk.
Then she went to the kitchen and returned with a large box filled with baseballs and softballs, representing several seasons of her confiscation efforts.
The filled box was presented to me.
The treasure, however, was not to be found in the gift but rather in her words.
I saw the first time a smile come across the face of Mrs. Shinas, and she said, "Tommy, I want to have these baseballs, and I want to thank you for being kind to me."
I expressed my own gratitude to her and walked from her and walked from her home a better boy than when I entered.
No longer were we enemies.
Now we were friends.
The Golden Rule had again succeeded.

-Thomas S. Monson -Your Eternal Voyage -April 2000 General Conference

Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Dream

I was in a classroom, kinda like the Nursery room in church with a bunch of other students, and I noticed one person -possibly my sister- picking up these little animal toys that were scattered all around. Nobody else had noticed what she was doing, but possibly the teacher, so I went to help her. Wondering in the back of my mind, if the teacher was purposely staging a lesson of some sort. So a few of us went about the room finding the little toys, when one boy, Brady, noticed, and he didn't like what we were doing for some reason. So he got on a fork lift, with the forks being sharp, and came after us. I ran terrified the forks would get me as my pockets and things were loaded and I wasn't sure I was running as fast as I could have run. I ran through the University to a spot that was just finishing with construction where a group of people were standing for the celebrations and ran straight to a boy standing behind another guy and a girl, they protected me from Brady's wrath, keeping me from getting injured....

Then the unholy tones of daylight pulled me away....
and I became myself again. :)

-S.N.D