Where Does Your Food Come From?

So today I was in line buying groceries at the Walmart in Payson, and the couple behind me had a cart FULL of food. I mean full! It was stacked very neatly about two feet above the edge of the cart. I complimented them on their nice stacking job, and we started chatting. I found out they were from Delta and had family coming into town, hence the abnormally large purchase.

For those of you who may not know, Delta is a small town about 1.5 hours south of Payson, and has no discount stores. In fact, the Walmart in Payson is the closest one. But this is not a blog about the evils of Walmart or large bargain chain stores (sorry Ben).

The guy told me he works at an egg farm (I can't remember if he actually used the word farm or not... maybe it was an egg plant?....wait that's the vegetable. Never mind.). Then he pointed to my Sunny Meadow Farm eggs on the conveyor belt and said, "Those are our eggs." Wow! I had no idea my eggs came from Delta. I told him I ate his eggs all the time and asked him if they supplied all of Utah. He said, "All of Utah and most of California. We process about 900,000 to 1,000,000 eggs a day." At this point my mouth dropped. I asked, "So how many chickens are there?" He said, "We have about 1.2 million birds." (I like how he said birds instead of chickens, lol!) I thought there would have been fewer birds than eggs, but I guess you can't work the chickens too hard.

Anyway, this just got me thinking about how little I think about where my food comes from. I know I ate strawberries from California today, and an Saturday I ate blackberries from Mexico. But where do my bananas come from? Where is my yogurt made? And where are the cows that give the milk to make that yogurt? Something to think about the next time you're at the grocery store.

What Girls Do Best

Recently, Julianne, Annelies, and I threw a bridal shower for Jenny. And we had so much fun doing it! The menu included glazed pears, blackberry chocolate cake, a cheese ball and crackers, apple cinnamon bread, and lemon water. (You really should click on the picture so you can get a better look at that cake!) There were coordinating cups, plates, utensils, and the room was nicely decorated. As we were enjoying the shower, we talked about how boys would NEVER do this. And, in fact, later a friend reported that when she told some guy friends about the party, they said, "Wow, the poor girls that had to plan it!!" She said, "No, they had fun planning it!"

This relates to another idea I've been thinking about-- the power women have to create beauty and show compassion. Elder Uchtdorf talked to the Relief Society about this last conference:

"The more you trust and rely upon the Spirit, the greater your capacity to create. That is your opportunity in this life and your destiny in the life to come. Sisters, trust and rely on the Spirit. As you take the normal opportunities of your daily life and create something of beauty and helpfulness, you improve not only the world around you but also the world within you....You are choice daughters of our Heavenly Father, and through the things you create and by your compassionate service, you are a great power for good. You will make the world a better place."

I don't intend to imply that men cannot be creative and compassion. Indeed some of the most creative and compassionate people I know are men. However, I believe woman have natural capacities to be creative and compassionate in unique ways. i am so grateful to be a woman. There is nothing I find greater happiness in than being creative and compassionate.

A Slice of Humanity

I keep thinking over and over again about how I see a slice of humanity every time I step into my classroom. For 45 minutes at a time, I share lives with 110 other human beings. I'm not sure if my students' lives necessarily represent those of the whole human race, but even though they are 13 and 14 years old, they face the challenges of the world: sickness, pain, death, violence, drug abuse, crime. Usually I feel pretty unaware of the suffering in the world-- or at least I feel like it's far away. But ever since I started teaching, I feel it near.

They have taught me so much. One of my students' mom passed away last week. I didn't know what to do or say, especially when she walked into class for the first time after it happened. But her guy friend, who sits a couple desks behind her just said, "Hey Cherie (name has been changed), Mr. Soandso is really mad at your class for..... blah blah." And they went on to have a friendly conversation about guitar class. I just watched and thought, "Wow! He knows exactly how to act--NORMAL!" And yet, I, a supposedly older and wiser 24-year-old, just stood there awkwardly.

It's just amazing to me how I really do see the whole spectrum of emotion, maturity, and life's problems in my little Payson classroom.