August 17th-August 22nd: In and Out

This week I didn’t write daily blogs about my Mission To Be Happy because I was “in and out” all week long.  By that I mean I wasn’t exactly coherent that much of the week…just enough to fill some obligations and then it was back in the sack with remedies galore.  The few M2B:) moments I have a vague recollection of are as follows:

Tuesday night, the 17th I took enough Sudafed and cough medicine to make it to the Repartee Gallery for the unveiling of Liz Swindle’s new paintings of the parables.    They brought in a baby grand piano so I could accompany McKenzie Turley who came down from Logan to sing my song THE MESSAGE THAT CAN CHANGE THE WORLD (HASN’T CHANGED).  McKenzie did a terrific job and it was wonderful seeing how music can enrich a visual experience.  Truth is, it was a spiritual experience hearing Liz talk about the inspiration behind her paintings and I was grateful to be there.

The next night we did a similar presentation at the second floor of the BYU Bookstore only McKenzie was unable to attend so my song was sung by the composer (rarely my first choice in sharing a new song).  To prep for this event I tried a combination of DayQuil, B-12, Diabetic Robitussin and Ricola lozenges.   The bad news was the meds didn’t make me sound that great, but the good news is I don’t sound much different when I’m 100% healthy.   Being on the BYU campus during education week is amazing.  One clerk at the bookstore said Education Week was EFY for old people.  Having never been a presenter at Education Week I’ve never really experienced the full frenzy of that many great people in one place expanding their hearts, their minds and their spirits.

Took me awhile to recover from the appearances with Liz.  Apparently no good deed goes unpunished.  I expected a full recovery by the 20th, but it was not to be.  Lynne was anxious for me to get better because the Egginton Family Reunion was being held at our place on the 21st.  This was the first time in many, many years we were hosting the event, and Lynne wanted it to be a memory to inspire her side of the family to get as excited about family history work as she is…or, at the very least, have all the cousins and the kids of cousins discover what a fun family they were a part of.

It was held outside, around the firepit.  Lots of great food, games for the kiddies, guitars, singing and s’mores around the fire and best of all….stories.  Telling the stories about Pop Egginton and the legacy he left.  Even though these weren’t directly “my” people, they became my people more completely than they were before the reunion.  Although I was only hitting on two cylinders, I felt the joy.

Spent the next day in bed…all day…but when I came to, I had a M2B:) smile on my face from the night before.