MaeLyn's Musings

In May of 2016, I wrote this blog . (Go ahead and read it... the rest of this blog will make more sense.) I had just received a new calling - something that felt overwhelming, and something that I didn't feel prepared for. Three years and seven months later, (or a week ago Sunday) we had just had our Christmas sacrament meeting and were headed into the cultural hall for a gathering with cookies when the bishop saw me and told me he wanted to talk to me for a few minutes before I left. Following the gathering, when the crowds were thinning out, I caught the bishop's eye and he took me to his office. "We need a primary pianist." He told me. "Okay." I said. I already felt like I knew where he was going. Our previous primary pianist recently moved to Utah and there aren't very many people who play piano in our ward. "We would like you to be our new primary pianist." "Okay." Primary pianist. I could do that. Not blindfolded, prob...

Yesterday,  I read a fantastic book. It is called The Faith of a Scientist , and it was written by Henry Eyring, father of President Henry B Eyring, and a well recognized chemist. ( President Johnson presented him with the National Medal of Science in 1967.) The book was also published in 1967, but the things written in it remain pertinent today. The subject? How a scientist can "[reconcile] the principles of true science with the principles of true religion." This very readable book is full of interesting scientific examples and explanations, with stories about Newton and Copernicus and even some of Eyring's personal experiences with Albert Einstein. He discusses principles of astronomy, geology, biology, and mathematics as well as chemistry. I highly recommend it! There are many things in this book which I understood before, but had difficulty articulating. I left it with a greater understanding of science, religion, and searching for truth. Here are some of the thing...

(Steven wrote this, but I really liked it, and so I am posting it with his permission.) BELIEVER: You know, somewhere out there, there exists a radio station. And that radio station is broadcasting music that it is possible for us to hear even where we are right now. SKEPTIC: What are you talking about? I can’t hear any music. BELIEVER: Well, the radio station doesn’t broadcast sound that you can hear. It sends out the signal using radio waves. SKEPTIC: Radio waves? What are those? I’ve never seen any radio waves. BELIEVER: Oh, you can’t see radio waves. Nor can you feel them or hear them. But they are real and that is how the radio station sends out its music. SKEPTIC: I’m sorry, but I don’t believe in things that I can’t see, hear, or feel. How do you know that this radio station really exists? BELIEVER: I know it exists because it is possible to hear the music that is broadcast by the radio station. But you need to have a radio receiver to do so. I have a radio set so I have heard t...

(This parable is intended to share my own thoughts and feelings. It is by no means intended to show disrespect to anyone who may or may not believe in π.) I believe in π. It is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to the diameter and to my understanding, has a value of approximately 3.14159... In English it is spelled pi, and sounds like the word pie. Imagine that I encounter someone who has lost their belief in π. They say it doesn't work for them. They say they don't believe it. (And somehow I hear, though it isn't explicit, the message that I shouldn't believe it either.) I scratch my head and I don't know what to say. It seems to work for me. Sure, I've had some times when it didn't work out for me, but that's usually because A) I tried to use it in a way that it wasn't intended, B) My measuring tape was stretched out of shape and inaccurate, or C) I made an error in my calculations. But on the whole, it has worked, and as I have us...

If you've been following my blog for a few years, you might remember that I have seizures occasionally. If you haven't, or want a refresher, check out this post . And this one . Once they figured out it was seizures, they put me on medication, and I haven't had a seizure in over a year now. (Yay!) Before they figured out it was seizures, when it was just syncope, I was referred to a cardiologist, who did a bunch of tests and found some issues , but none of them would cause the syncope, so I kind of dismissed them. He did put me on some medications though, and I've continued to take them, and yesterday I went to the office for a yearly check up, kind of wondering why I bothered now that I know that the syncope episodes were seizures, and not heart related. Now I'm wondering if I should have paid more attention. One of the tests that the cardiologist did at that time was a test for Lipoprotein (A)  The doctor gave me another copy of the results from that first tes...