Bacon Mountain

I've been wanting to post for awhile...but I just haven't been feelin' it... You know when you feel like you've been going Mach 2 but you look around and the only thing associated with the rate of Mach 2 is the speed at which the laundry has been growing and your patience has been waning? Yeah--that's me.

Soooo...I've decided it's time to write about my "Bacon Mountains" i.e. places that help me think clearly, sense peace and feel love. The term "Bacon Mountain" originated when we lived in Provo, UT.

When Scott was in graduate school at BYU and we lived in student housing, I didn't want my kids traveling along the busy street of 9th East on their way to school. So, I walked with them and convinced them that we should take a 1/2 mile detour. Our route took us past the Provo, UT temple. (Note: This route lasted a year. In the years following, I grew slack in my safety mothering skills and they walked along 9th east--probably running with sharp sticks too!) In the mornings, the temple cafeteria was cooking up breakfast. As we traveled along Temple Hill Drive, we would leisurely inhale the aroma and my children would proclaim, "It smells like Bacon Mountain!" I cherished these walks (and the smells). It was a time when I felt a sense of purpose in a day filled with seemingly mundane and under appreciated tasks.

Dance 241summer 2010

Another Bacon Mountain place for me is the dance studio. There have been divers studios where I have felt the stirrings of creativity about to surface and the intimacy and contentment which accompanies the prospect of creating. The most recent studio(s) being those in the Richards Building at BYU. The Richards building is home to Physical Education as well. Consequently, opening the doors to the building, one is greeted with the whiff of chlorine from the pools. The chlorinated air generated motivation and familiarity as I anticipated the creative process. 

"I don't know why we all don't dance more. It seems important to me, to feel ourselves in our bodies interacting with our physical surrounding as we create beauty/art." --Cassandra Barney. 

"Ditto" affirmed Susan Lloyd.

Sitting in my backyard is a Bacon Mountain place. I love to sit in my wicker Grocery Outlet purchased chair and absorb the radiant sunshine on any day-- during any season in NorCal and swallow the warmth of the sun and my thoughts.

NorCal's Ultimate Bacon Mountain

The Bacon Mountains in my life have been holy places. Ann M. Dibb has asserted that a holy place can be geographic or a moment in time. Elder Dallin H. Oaks adds that a holy place can be when one is attending to their duty as well. I agree on both accounts. I usually remember the geographical location when I've felt loved--God's love. These places do not seem "holy" because of their location, but because of the moment I felt His love through an answer to prayer: i.e the bathroom, the top bunk in a seemingly institutional place and the shower. All have their "Bacon Mountain" qualities: "The fruit of the Spirit is (or you're near Bacon Mountain when you feel): love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, [and] temperance.” Galatians 5:22

I know it's a rough world out there! If you haven't found your "Bacon Mountain", I pray you will find, feel or smell one today. P.S. Bacon is on sale at Grocery Outlet! Seriously.