Let Us Go Up to the Mountain of the Lord

 There has been a lot of stuff going on at our house recently.  A lot of stuff.  We needed a break.  It worked out very well that we have been planning on going to the temple this weekend as part of a joint Relief Society and Young Womens' activity.

Today at Ward Council they were talking about how well attended the activity was.  They figured we had about 25% of the active ward members there, including us.  However, we did not caravan up with the main group.  They met at the church and all rode up more or less together.  We just left from our house, a little earlier than they were planning, and went straight on up on our own.

It was good "us" time.  We were able to be just the two of us.  That is not to say that we talked about deep and significant stuff on the trip.  Sometimes just the comfortable quiet is just as beneficial, if not more so, than the deep conversations.

In fact, some times the necessary conversations seem to fill the time, you end up "conducting business" so much of the time that there is little time left to simply enjoy one another's company.

It was President Howard W Hunter who said, "We develop our ability to receive spiritual knowledge as we take time to meditate, ponder, and pray." (Oct Conference, 1981).  In our relationships in marriages and families, spending quiet time together is essentially the same thing, in my opinion.  We develop our strength and closeness as we spend time together, not "conducting business" but just quietly enjoying one another's company.

So after the work at the temple was done we did not go with the group to lunch and then caravan back.  We went over to a small, near by community to see their swinging bridge.  This bridge was over one hundred years old and spans a small ravine running through town.

There used to be several of these bridges in this town but now there is only the one left.  It was unusual being on it.  It would sway and swing as you moved around on it.  I put the camera on my tripod and started the timer.  As I ran over to get in the picture it set the bridge to bouncing and swinging quiet a bit.  Same thing when some other people crossed the bridge as we were looking around, getting ready to take some pictures. Very unusual. Kind of fun.

A small river ran under the bridge, down in the bottom of the ravine.  Very green, very pretty.

 It was a good day.  It was good to slow the trip down, to not just hustle over to the temple, do some quick work and hustle back, but take some time to recharge, to quietly relax and enjoy the company. The company - I did so enjoy the "us" time with my favorite person.