The Eyes of a Babe

The Boy Child lay quietly, the mother now slept,
the husband, a fatherly vigil he kept.
Into my arms, the small Babe was placed;
I pushed back the cloth to look into His face.

The skin was soft—a bit mottled and red—
a wisp of black hair adorned the small head.
Then slowly, slowly, the eyes opened wide—
though the eyes of a babe, I was lost inside.

In those eyes I saw Love, I saw Truth, I saw Peace,
Majesty and Meekness, worlds that don’t cease.
I also saw sorrow and pain so extreme
that I let out a cry at what I had seen.

But as the eyes stayed open, I saw more—I saw me—
all my joys, all my sorrows, my sins and my deeds.
My soul opened wide, my depths I did see.
I saw myself in those eyes, and those eyes saw me.

The gaze did not burn, nor sharply chastise,
but understanding forgiveness offered the eyes.
They said, “Come lay your burdens and follow thou me.”
My soul leapt and said yes, and I became free.

But a moment in my arms held I the small Boy,
yet a lifetime it seemed—immeasurable Joy!
His eyes now He closed, and gently as able
laid I Him in the manger and retired from the stable.

And now as I stand in the chill of the night,
my sheep are as calm as the Star burning bright.
I remember the angels and the song they did raise.
I remember those eyes, I remember that gaze.

[Christmas Eve, 1997, Provo, Utah]

Grandma's Funeral Files

Here are links to files related to Grandma McClellan's funeral this week:

Audio Recording (wav format; 20.5 MB)

Audio Recording (mp3 format; 40.5 MB)

Picture of the Last Note Grandma Wrote to Her Family


And here are audio files from Grandpa McClellan's funeral three years ago:

Audio Recording (wav format; 13 MB)

Audio Recording (mp3 format; 25.7 MB)


To download the files, right click on the link (control-click for Macs) and select the option to "save as" or "download as." I can only leave these files on our server for a few days.

Greetings from Camp Eloes

We're here at Camp Eloes (pronounced like "Eloise") for a couple of days and having a great time. Camp Eloes is designed for young superheroes and their families. We're here with Honda the Hero, of course (aka Lizzy).

There are 10 superheroes in our group at camp. I'm not sure how many groups there are, but there appear to be a lot of little superheroes flying around. Lizzy--I mean Honda--keeps ducking them and saying "Whoa!" Honda, unfortunately, does not fly. Her powers are 1) super fast and 2) safe in lava. Both very handy powers.

A couple of tips should you be invited to Camp Eloes with your little hero:

1. The superheroes are invisible to people like you and me. Their tents are also invisible. Honda is a group leader so she can see all the other tents and superheroes. That was very handy in putting up our tent. Honda said she actually put up most of the tents for her group. I'm not sure if the other superheroes can see each other. However, every superhero here in Camp Eloes is outfitted with a communicator. These are very important when pitching tents and engaging in other activities. You don't want to pitch your tent on top of someone else's tent (especially if their powers happen to include things like gooey acid, smelly feet, or spontaneous combustion).

2. If you choose to roast your marshmallows over the paper fire that comes with each tent, we recommend that you blow on your marshmallows three times per marshmallow after roasting them. So if you put two marshmallows on your stick, blow six times; three marshmallows, nine times; seven marshmallows, 21 times; etc. We also recommend against roasting and eating repeated batches of mutiple stale marshmallows. They don't settle too well on the adult digestive system. Superheroes, however, appear to have special stale-marshmallow-resistant tummies.

3. Not all of the superheroes here have families with them. Some of the superheroes are orphans. So reach out to those little ones who may be a bit lonely and down. But first you have to find them. And that's kind of hard when they're invisible.

4. There is a lot of work to be done around here. Each group has 10 superheroes and 20 jobs. So your little one will be busy working. It's also an educational camp, so be prepared to help your hero learn all he or she can during the camp.

5. Camp T-shirts are a must. They work best when you use washable markers on old shirts. Ours say C.E.--for Camp Eloes, of course. (But before you start making shirts, check with us in a few days so we can tell you if those markers really are washable...)

6. Don't let your lack of powers get you down. It's easy to feel unspecial when you can't fly, walk through lava, lift up cars, stretch your arms a mile in each direction, or do other cool things. And it can get frustrating when you can't see anyone but your own family. But I noticed that Caroline has really been enjoying it here. She kept smiling and laughing--presumably at the invisible superheroes that keep flying over--and I thought I should probably adopt her attitude. So relax and enjoy yourself.

Not for all the...

A month or so ago we took a quick family vacation to Zion National Park. In the midst of our hiking one day, we were discussing something slightly scary (like climbing cliffs) and Lizzy declared, "I wouldn't do that for all the pink things in the world!"

Perhaps because of our reaction (we laughed), she's used that construction a couple of times since. Last week, for instance, I brought home two brownies I had been given at a work event. Obviously I wasn't going to touch them, but I knew Christine and Lizzy would enjoy the brown stuff.

After dinner, Christine cut a slice off of her brownie and ate it. Lizzy was surprised. "Why did you do that, Mommy?" Christine explained that she didn't want the whole thing right now--might be too much sugar all at once--so she was just going to eat part of it.

Lizzy responded passionately, "I wouldn't do that for all the chocolate in the world!"

Dad and the Chocolate: A Joke!

[For Lizzy's homework yesterday, she had to write sentences for each of four senses: sight, smell, taste, and touch. She sat down to write her sentences and came up with this...]


Dad sees chocolate. "Yuck!"
Dad smells chocolate. "Yuckier!"
Dad tastes chocolate. "Yuckiest!"
I guess Dad would wanna touch a orange instead. Ha! Ha! Ha!
Does your dad hate chocolate?