Maureen

I am very happy.
I have two energetic daughters, a spouse that is finding more excitement in the world than ever before.
I have one of the greatest jobs in the world working with highly engaged collaborators with incredible opportunities.
I get to work alongside brilliant and committed scout leaders doing activities I live and watching young men transform into teachers and leaders.
And I am in a calling right now that is allowing me to be myself and have the support and validation from leaders that find value in my unorthodox methods and beliefs (finally).
I'm under an awful lot of stress right now from various sources, but I love where I am in life and the things I am accomplishing. There's very little I would change.

I suffer from depression.  In the last two years or so, it's been clinically classified as "major depressive disorder."  I actually found that reading that diagnosis came as a relief, because I had initially (12 years ago?) been diagnosed with "mild depression," but I had been struggling a lot more than "mildly."  I've been taking an anti-depressant that has helped temper my stress and mood swings, but hasn't done much more than that.  In the last two months, I've added a stimulant to help with my ADHD, and in the last month I've noticed a change.  I've shared with more than one person on this board already, but I feel like I've come up for air from being underwater for so long.  At first I was gasping for breath because I needed it to stay alive.  But soon I found myself gulping down breaths just because it felt so good to breath again!  I feel happy!  I can't pinpoint when the change happened, or what specifically may have been a turning point for me, but I feel happy!  It's no longer putting on a good face so people don't know.  It's no longer suffering in silence.  It's no longer commiserating with other friends who are also struggling (though I still do that, but more empathizing than commiserating).  It's no more fooling myself into thinking I'm happy.  It's no more one or two good days a week.
 
I FEEL HAPPY!!!
 
I feel it inside, and it's the best thing I have felt in a very, very long time.  I had forgotten what it felt like to be happy.  It feels so good!  I'm happy that I'm able to feel happy again.
 
And I'm so excited to share it with people!  I feel like I'm in a good position lately to help others who are still under their own waters, because I've seen the surface, and I know it's there.
 
A small part of me is scared though, worried that this won't last long.  I pray that it will.

I am quite happy and content.  This doesn't mean my life is perfect.  It just means I feel truly blessed by all God has done for me and given me. We aren't rich.  Our home is small.  Our cars are old.  I am frequently sick, thanks to lupus.  But, I have a husband who loves me, wonderful children (two grown, one almost grown) a darling doggy, good friends, peace in our home and most of all the complete assurance of God's love for me as an individual.

Communication is interesting to me.  I make my living as a consulting engineer in the field of robotics and automation.  I am never contacted when a company is happy and successful in moving their products within their facilities.   What is interesting is that many times companies are not ready to solve their problems – I think people are like that.  One of my best customers after my first week with them had me escorted from their facilities by security.  6 months later they wanted me back.  But by then their problems were so bad that they were losing over 2 million dollars a day.
 
What I have discovered is that civility is more a reflection of internal turmoil and instability than it is external injustice (of course there are always exceptions) and many of us with difficult anger issues will not change our failing methods, if ever, until things get so bad that are no other possibilities.  Anger is often an emotion that results when there is frustration and a fear of being recognized for failure. 
 
PC for example is very comfortable with his religious understanding and so he has no fear about his religion failing to achieve for him what he desires of it.  Most of us however, are not as stable in knowing what we really believe and desire instead to be recognized and validated – otherwise there is no metric of intelligent progress.   Perhaps the most important aspect of open discussion that I have realized is that I do not learn much in discussing things with those with whom I agree.  I seem to learn much more from those that disagree with me.  Except those that will stand in the direct light of the noon day sun and declare it night.  For such I am convinced that any intelligent conversation is such a threat to everything they believe that anger, name calling and all other such things are absolute necessities to in order to think themselves sane and thus rhetorical logic is impossible.

I'm inclined to agree with you, the rush of new characters was a result of having to establish the universe in which the story is set. Also it is hard to have a continuity when you don't have history to draw upon so the episodes understandably trended towards the episodic. Now that they have an established universe and continuity they are drawing upon it to create long term and short term story arcs and the characters can relate to each other in more nuanced ways because they now have histories, both with each other and singularly. 

You still have a wesen of the week* aspect but they have developed an ongoing story arc that gets put front and center every few episodes and simmers in the background quite often when it isn't front and center. They have a developed continuity  now where, when appropriate, you see references back to previous episodes. It's a much more established universe and it is by no means just, "Nick beats up a wesen." these days.
 
*It's worth noting that the wesen of the week is usually not a character, they're a challenge for the actual characters to overcome.

They can be compared because the LDS church is a religious organization, just like the Catholic Church and the multiple Protestant churches are. All have their own rituals that are important and sacred to each religion. You may feel that LDS rituals are far superior than non-LDS rituals, but you take up space on the same Earth and therefore the beliefs and rituals of other religions are just as important to them as yours are to you.
M.

I understand what you're saying, estradling, but I still think it's good that the Church is acknowledging the please of many women in the Church, daughters of God, who do feel marginalized for whatever reasons.  The Church is showing that they do sympathize, or at least that they hear these women.  I don't see a change anytime soon on the ordination issue (if ever), but I think that these recent steps the Church has taken will help to assuage many.  And I think that's important.
 
Even if it is announced this morning that women may now receive the Priesthood, the dialogue would likely then shift to a countdown or campaign to have a woman prophet/president of the Church, which would likely take another half-century or more.  I know that the requests/desires/demands will change over time.  But I don't think that means that the Church can't or shouldn't change trivial things (like seating arrangements) in the meantime, even if only to say "we see you, we hear you, we love you."

I didn't notice that myself, but I did see someone else comment on it.
 
I'm curious why you think that it wasn't at all impacted by OW?  And would it be so bad if it was?
The first woman to offer a prayer in GC came immediately after the "Let Women Pray" activity, and though the Church says it wasn't influenced by that, it's awfully coincidental timing.  In the last year(ish), there has been a great deal of Mormon Feminist activity and dialogue.  There has also been a greater effort on the Church's part to bring visibility and autonomy to women of the Church: lowered mission eligibility, female mission trainers, semi-annual women's conference (instead of YW and RS), auxiliary presidencies portraits hung in the conference center, a female PR rep responding to the OW group, and more.  I think that these are all good things.  I think the Church recognizes the desires and the hurt that many women feel, and they are taking steps to show sympathy and ackowledgement, while still maintaining purity of doctrine.  I do think the rearranged seating was influenced by OW, and I think it's a good thing.  It's tantamount to "We see you, we hear you," while still maintaining a firm and unwavering doctrinal position.

Oh how I miss the new posts link.
 
New site is fun though. As some may have noticed, I decided with the changed site to change my username. Church was just too confusing in sentences addressed to me about the church talking to church that church says the church said go to church church.

Thanks for the hard work on the site Pam.

In case you would like a new avatar I suggest this one:

Where is the New Topic button? I hate going through the forum headings one at a time - ugh.
Where is/are the: emoticons & fonts & text size - color
PS- those warning posts are from 3 years ago - even after upgrading and *perfecting* this forum, they still can\'t get rid of that!! (sour grapes)

I just had to quote this, because the Arial font is so refreshing.  :)

Just skimmed through a few posts and I had some thoughts on baby blessings. I think it's worth mentioning that BBs are also given to children of parents that are not active members, and it's not uncommon for the father not to have the priesthood - yet he is invited to participate by holding the mic or holding the child (if the mother isn't doing so). I have seen this done many times, and I have also seen mothers hold their children, so I'm not convinced that this is a "priesthood only" occasion. If it was, I imagine it would be addressed by leaders (to whatever degree that may be), and not a neglected issue.
 
 
For me it's pretty obvious where the priesthood lies - and that is within the circle of priesthood holders that are performing the blessing - any additional involvement (a non-priesthood holding father holding the mic, and mother holding the child, for example) are not participating as priesthood holders in any context. So, I'm not sure where the feeling of inappropriateness or even threat is coming from. This may merely be a case of Mormon culture, and for the situations where tradition is out the window, it can ruffle feathers a bit. Again, If any of this was an issue, I believe the leaders would address it (to whatever degree that may be), and not a neglected issue.

I held my daughter when she was blessed. She was nine months old at the time, and wouldn\'t have sat still otherwise. Placing hands under the baby is likely only because a baby\'s head tends to be too small to accommodate many hands, and the baby needs holding anyway (in my daughter\'s case, my husband, our bishop, and the two grandfathers were the only ones in the circle, and they took care to mostly use fingertips instead of whole hands on her head). But the ordinance of \"naming and blessing\" isn\'t exclusive to infants. A five-year-old who is named and blessed in Sacrament meeting isn\'t held by the Priesthood brethren in the circle. Most women who bring up the baby blessing example aren\'t looking to participate in the Priesthood circle, but rather to simply have the privilege and ability to hold the infant that they carried and gave birth to, as it receives the first Priesthood ordinance of its life. It\'s not an unreasonable request.

What the freak happened?!?! And where\'s the \"laugh\" button?
Also, those warning points over there <<<<< really? That was way back in 2011, is there no forgiveness?