The voices we choose to listen to; A thing found; and... that's a wrap!

[NOTE:  I mention this in an update note further down also, but also wanted to call out here in the beginning.  After writing this post and focusing only on summarizing the Stone story events after Sawtooth, I thought more on it overnight, and came back here the next day to add the detail around Stone events prior to Sawtooth also, while also adding a few bullets on Joseph of Egypt.  It seemed better to try and capture it all here in one spot in a general summary.  For more details, you can refer to the individual posts that discuss those story elements.]

A little over two months ago I started this blog, and I believe it is with this post I will conclude it.  As stated in my opening, I wished to use writing here as a method to explore, not knowing exactly where things would take me.  Truthfully, much of what I have written here are just some of the topics and ideas that have already been bouncing around in my head for some time, in many cases several years.  In writing them down, though, I was able to put some concrete shape to them and see what they looked like in a place not completely inside of my own mind.  In doing so, in many cases I was able to pick up additional nuances, see things in a different way, and establish other interesting connections.  In my opinion the thoughts I've rummaged through here remain in my mind very serious possibilities, but still only that.

It was only in this last week, though, that my mind caught on entirely new ideas and possibilities specifically relating to what exactly happened with the Sawtooth Stone, both in the events leading up to its retrieval in April and May 2020, as well as afterwards.  It is an interesting thing for me to explore - in many ways the open question in my mind as to what happened to the Stone can't be completely separated from the question of what happened to me, as both were left somewhat in the air and subject to interpretation.

I think I have found what I was looking for with respect to Stone happenings, and thus I am simply not sure there is much else to write about.  There are a lot of other interesting ideas to explore, but it is really the Stone that was on my mind after all, and now knowing a bit more as to its fate, and the events surrounding it, I lost some motivation to write, maybe.  

Having uncovered this story, and thinking more on it last night, I went to write some more things (I had some thoughts on Hodnil, for example) and found I was already thinking about this blog in the past tense.  I just couldn't find the motivation to write.  I closed my computer, turned on a football game, and it felt pretty good.  I figured that I wanted to write one more post, though, to have some closure to this particular series of writings.

I have just a thought or two on the voices that we choose or do not choose to listen to.  Then I will summarize the story as I see it regarding what happened to the Stone before putting this blog to bed.

The voices we choose to listen to

Part of my journey over the last several years has been accepting the fact that our thoughts and minds are not completely our own, no matter how much we would wish this to be.  Lehi in the Book of Mormon talked of those who act and those who are acted upon, and I fear we are far more oriented to the 'acted upon' category than we think in general.  There are many voices trying to get our attention, and these voices are attached to Beings.  

I believe I have come across good Beings and bad Beings, and even some Beings who I can't tell if they are good or bad, but just seem to want to be heard.   Who do we choose to listen to, and how do we know they are our friends?  I don't have any simple answer to this, being one who has found myself on the receiving end of listening to the wrong voice and looking back and only being able to wonder "How did I get here?" enough times to suggest advice from me would be dodgy at best.  At many points, it seemed better to me to just to consign myself to having some serious mental and behavioral disorders than to view the world through the lens of many Beings and voices vying for our minds, but I think that is how it is.

There is too much darkness in each of our minds, I feel, for any of us to be immune to this.  But we still have to try.  The only way that has seemed to work for me is to do as Alma said in planting the seed and seeing what grows.  If it feels good and delicious - something like 'home' - then I say why not.  I don't think there is a penalty for guessing wrong if it is done with the right intent and it truly feels and does good.

Seeds don't grow in a vacuum, and the type of seeds I think we are talking about, and the way that they grow, ultimately do so in the form of stories.  Much can be said about Joseph Smith, whether an imposter, confused individual, the devil, or a son of God, but no one can argue with the fact that he brought a story, whatever you think of it.  It is one of the most overlooked but yet powerful witnesses, to my mind, that Joseph did a good work.  

And so I think it is stories that we are after.  Have an idea?  Great, plant it in a story and see where it goes.  There is both a power and protection in good stories, and only good can come by growing them even more, I think.  

A thing found

When I started this blog, I didn't know where it was going.  Was it going to just be getting a few things down, or was this going to be something into perpetuity?   I was exploring, and leaving it open.  It was only in the last week that I believe I found what I was looking for, or even understood what I was looking for.  This came in the further development of the story of what happened to the Stone before and after Sawtooth.

I know it is probably hard to relate, but it is a very love-hate relationship I have with some of the words that I have shared on this blog, for obvious reasons.  The words I pulled from my notebooks this past week in examining what happened were things I hadn't looked at for 2.5 years, in some cases, and it was a trip initially going back to them.  But, while there, someone just kind of pulled back the curtain a bit and let me see a story that had been hidden from me for quite some time.  A gentle hand on my mind, when so many other hands have not been that way.  And it was a good story, or at least a sequence of events, that made sense if not likely believable or to be taken seriously by many.  I believe it, though, and I trust the Beings that let me have that look.

It was a revelation of sorts, and it felt really good.  Something completely new and fresh in addition to all of my other thoughts.  In the end it was incredible, actually, for me to see that little story come out in these past few days.

I will briefly summarize that story of the events surrounding the Stone both before and after its recovery at Sawtooth below (in bullet form) since I know it is spread out over a couple posts, and even when found in the same post it kind of bounces back and forth (these are definitely not polished essays).  I have a few more general bullets to add, also.  

[Note:  An earlier version of this post just had events following Sawtooth listed here.  After thinking about it more overnight, I came back here the day following to put a more complete list that summarizes events leading up to Sawtooth since these were also things I learned more about in the course of this writing.]

Here is how things developed as best as I can tell (as always, open to revision or for another to make clearer):

• At some point, Joseph-Dior (Joseph of Egypt) leaves the region of Eressea, comes to Earth (not born as a person, though), and looks for the Stone.  On this Stone is a story-song he put there a very long time ago.
• Joseph runs into trouble in the course of his search and a rescue mission is launched from Aman/ Eressea to locate him and bring him home.  This mission launches sometime in the latter part of 2019 [it is unclear to me when Joseph originally left on his search].
• Joseph is eventually found through means of a palantir-stone (likely the Anor Stone-Liahona), and his rescuers, as well as those from Aman/ Eressea communicating to him through that stone, try to convince him to return home.
• He is hesitant to return home, worrying that in doing so his family (the Family of Light) would be at risk.  He finally does return, however, likely accompanied by John-Thingol himself in the company, around the beginning of March 2020.
• Not to linger long, some of the rescuers are welcomed back to Eressea but are asked to quickly come back to Earth, even though they are tired, and assist in recovering the Sawtooth Stone (arriving back on Earth prior to March 15).
• By March 15, the party, which includes the 3 Disciples from Bountiful, are in enemy territory, making their way to Idaho.
• March 18 they stop over in Salt Lake City and use a tactical earthquake to remove Moroni's trumpet from off the top of the Temple.  
• On March 31, the Quest for the Sawtooth Stone will have reached their destination at William's Peak in the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho and commence creating a path to go down into the depths of the Earth in pursuit of the Stone using the 3 Disciples' power over the Earth.
• With the commencement of the activity at Sawtooth, Asenath prepares to leave her home on/ next to Eressea to go and confront the Balrog - "Son of Baal-ox".  On April 2, she tells her husband Joseph, who she has been watching over in Eressea, that she needs to depart for Earth.
• By April 16, Asenath has joined the party at Sawtooth, and they begin their descent into the Earth
• The confrontation between Asenath and the Balrog occurs sometime between April 20 and 21; she wins and the Son of Baal-ox takes an oath; Asenath returns home to Eressea
• Following the confrontation, it would be sometime before the Stone itself was recovered and/ or deemed safe to move - almost one year later.  It is unclear how much of this time lapse is due to finding and retrieving the Stone vs. waiting for the right time to mobilize.
• In February 2021, the Stone was sent from Sawtooth with two couriers/ guardians on its way to the House of Tom Bombadil, in what is now France
• After a 17 day journey (of which we have no detail yet as to whether eventful or not) the Stone arrives with Tom, and they wait for nearly a month. 
• During the wait,  Tom teaches them lore, which from the words I picked up are likely about the ways the Earth will be blessed through his seed.  Tom is Abraham, I believe, and Aule, by the way.  Both Eonwe-Faramir and Este-Asenath would have been his children in Aman at the beginning (one of the posts I hadn't been able to get to, I don't think).
• Aragorn-John arrives in April 2021 and takes the Stone to the Drudain, who it is thought can potentially fix the Stone (which has been damaged) with their skill and craftsmanship.  They agree to do so, or at least give it a try
• The Stone undergoes extensive repairs over the course of more than 1.5 years.  The Good Guys were wanting it done by the Fall of 2022, but this deadline is missed, it seems.  It is slow and tedious work, apparently.
• By November 2022, however, I believe the Stone has been repaired and delivered back to the care of Tom-Abraham.
• The Stone remains under Tom-Abraham's care in his House until perhaps late summer of this year (just in the last few months), when I think it goes on the move again.
• The movement of the Stone from Tom's House is based on it being ready to be delivered to the one who will use it.  Everything else has been done (even preparation work among the Dead, potentially), and thus it is only a matter of Time - when is the right Time?

Assuming the Stone is real (I believe it is), it could be not long potentially before things get rolling.  I've thought that before, though, and it is probably more of a hope than anything based on facts.  Yet, there is some reason to believe this is so.  My sense is that if the Stone would have met the hoped-for repair deadline last year, then it would have been delivered last fall.  A window was missed, and so there is a wait for the next one.  But better good work and late, than a useless Stone on-time.  It is ready now, so I don't know what the hold up would be other than delivering it in the way the Good Guys have decided it should be, which includes at the time they have decided.  It is hopeful thought, at least.

And... that's a wrap!

The fact that it felt like a breath of fresh air when I didn't want to write here told me this was the right choice.  It seemed to end as soon as it began, however.  As I said, this past week in particular has been a good one with respect to understanding events around the Stone better, and I had assumed I would just keep writing.  There seems to be significant momentum in my thoughts on this topic and there are also a number of 'for another post' types of comments and loose-ends I left in several posts.  

But I don't see myself going on with writing more on it currently.

And there is the matter of the Stone itself.  I think it is all that matters, frankly.  And unless you have it then I don't think whatever you have to say on these types of matters is really worth listening to (though you might have many good thoughts on other things!).   I apply that standard to myself, and as I also don't have the Stone you shouldn't probably bother with much of anything I am writing, either.  So, we wait.

I will leave this blog up (not deleted like my last one) and feel free to dig into ideas and see where your imagination takes you.  The comments were moderated, and I am disabling them going forward since I won't be monitoring or reviewing regularly.  I think this removes all current comments from a couple commentators who took the time to add their thoughts, unfortunately.  I didn't know if anyone would read or stumble across this blog, let alone comment, so I appreciate the time and thought they took in addressing what has been written here.

I hope and believe in a better story than we have received and that we have been convinced we are in.  A much better story.   I am not sure how right some of these things I have written are, or even how relevant they might be.  But I do feel strongly that right or wrong on anything else, this Story does involve a Stone, and Good Times Rolling.