Surgery on a toe to remove ganglion and fuse a joint

The question is - would I do it again?

In about 2008-2009 I had a ganglion on the second toe of my right foot. This was uncomfortable and
I had to wear a corn plaster when doing field work in Phalaborwa because the ganglion was continually chafed in my shoes or boots. I then had the ganglion surgically removed and after the healing I was fine for many years.

But then a ganglion formed again on the same joint, and a short while later on the equivalent joint of the left foot. I put up with this for a while, but it would become inflamed at times and burst at times, and it was not something that I could continue to live with.

I consulted an orthopaedic surgeon who recommended surgical removal of the ganglion, and that because this is a sign of the onset of osteo-arthritis, that it was likely that I would have repeated ganglion formation unless the cartilage and capsule for the joint were removed. He would put in a wire to fuse the joint and then I should have no more ganglion formation in those joints.

I pondered this and acknowledged that something had to be done and that the ganglion was a serious impediment to my normal functioning and the amount of walking that I routinely do. So I agreed to the surgery and on 19 July the joints were removed and the recovery proceeded. I was booked off work for six weeks, but was able to work much of the time at home for the first weeks, and once I could drive again I returned early to work. I missed the walking that I often did, parking at the administration buildings and walking about 500 m each way to and from my office.

The pictures are on 31 December (5.5 months) on the left and 22 Feb (7 months) on the right. 

It is now more than six months and I am not particularly aware of the surgery to the toes. The joints are not really obviously missed because the toes do not bend that much anyway. But there is not denying that they are different.

I have pondered what might have precipitated the ganglion formation and wondered if in some way it might have been due to irritation from the strops (surfer's web sandals) that I have been wearing for a few years. The surgeon was not sure that there was any real cause other than aging.

It was quite amusing when we went to vote shortly after the surgery and Sally was told by one young lady that I should return to the car and they would come to me for me to cast my vote. She indicated that I was an amputee! Well, I was not up to standing in the queue, but amputee is rather an extreme label 😉

Some reflections on blessings that my family has had at the Temple

My family has visited the Johannesburg Temple every year, I believe, since it opened thirty years ago. Our annual holiday would be to visit family in the Johannesburg area so that we could attend the Temple. We drove the N1 between Cape Town and Johannesburg year after year, and usually stayed with my wife Sally's mother Margaret Burns in Pretoria so that we could enjoy the Temple. But it did usually mean that one of us could attend at a time because we usually had one small child, then two, three, four and five. Sally was often breastfeeding. So it was a real blessing to us when we were able to stay in Patron Housing when that opened. What a difference that made! It was possible then for Sally to attend the Temple each day because I could take turns babysitting while she served, and we could change so that she could breastfeed or babysit while I participated in ordinances. We could enjoy the Spirit of the Temple in a way never before possible. As the children grew and the older ones could look after the younger, we could attend together more often.

We have found it a great blessing when we attended with other ward members and different people could take turns caring for children allowing parents that otherwise would not be able to participate, to enjoy the blessings of the Temple. We would make sure that all children were cared for so that as many adults as possible could be in the Temple participating in baptisms, initiatory, endowment or sealing ordinances as frequently as possible. Travelling from Cape Town, this was always a wonderful blessing.

I remember last December babysitting my 6 grandchildren and the children of a son-in-law’s sister. This sister and her husband, bishop and sister Ferrett of Fish Hoek ward, had the most remarkable visit that they had ever had because they were able to attend together for the first time since their own sealing. All of this was possible because we were at Parton Housing, the families in the family rooms, although the Ferretts were staying with her brother in Vereeniging and not in Patron Housing. I read to them and then took them into the Temple garden, and when they became a little rowdy in the Temple garden I took them exploring in the gardens at Enduleni, looking for fairies and wild animals. But Amanda Ferrett had apparently not had a good Temple experience before, and this was a real turning point for her, blessed by Patron Housing.

For me, I felt as reverent and blessed a Temple Spirit having the children in the Temple garden enabling parents to be inside together as serving inside. I looked after the two children of my counsellor in the bishopric so that he and his wife could attend and endowment session together. I served as an ordinance worker from December 1995 to September 2013. It had been a blessing to be able to bring members of my own ward or stake through the veil, or to officiate in my own children’s endowments. I would participate in at least one endowment session, carefully observing for anything that appeared to be different before mentioning to the Shift Coordinator that I was available should I be needed in any way, and asking if I needed to know anything that might have changed. It was wonderful being able to serve in that way. I was saddened when told that because more than three months passed between some of my visits I could no longer officiate. Serving the children in the garden so that their parents could sit together in and endowment was also wonderful although in a very different way.

Each of our children was born in the covenant because Sally and I had been sealed in Salt Lake Temple immediately after our marriage in 1981. It was such a wonderful blessing after years with no Temple in South Africa to be able to frequently visit the Johannesburg Temple, and such an increased blessing when Patron Housing was available. We hope that the Temple managers can find a way to enable families to serve in the house of the Lord in the way that Sally and I have been able to do by making it possible for them to use the family rooms, although we do understand that it should be on the proviso that they always have proper care for each and every child.

Breast feeding mothers are blessed with the flexibility that the husband can attend a session while she is feeding and the father can care for them for the other session while the mother attends. This is possible because they have a room in which the mother can feed in private. Ward groups add to the flexibility, enabling parents to serve together where they might otherwise not be able to do so.

People, left to themselves, are happy and content

Interesting insight that I gained one day driving slowly in peak hour traffic on the N1. There was a team of men working on the side of the road. They were probably erecting street lights in about 2014, and one big, hulking man was skipping merrily along.    

   

I realised that most people, left to themselves, are happy and content.    

   

It is very easy to persuade one that he is unfortunate because he lacks something that another has - it will always be the case that someone has more of something than we have. Or that he is entitled to something. Or that he has rights that others should ensure. We need to recognise that we, in turn, have more of some things than others have, or are better in some ways than others. I remember my mother pointing out that the goat herder on the mountains can almost certainly speak more languages than I can.

   

It is not easy to persuade one, though, that he must meet the needs of others, or ensure those same rights for others, or share what he has with others.    

   

This entitlement is one of the biggest maladies that we face in the world, and South Africa is an excellent example of the malady. Donald Trump elected US president, Jacob Zuma giving State of the Nation address in South Africa, BREXIT in Britain, and so forth. 2016 and 2017 are proving to be remarkable years.

Coincidentally, I wrote this on Friday morning 11 Feb 2017, and on that evening I heard an interesting quote on a business radio programme. 'Comparison is the thief of joy'.

Panorama Ward conference theme 2016

We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost. That is our first Article of Faith. We believe that he wants us to have eternal glory, with Him.

His Son, Jesus Christ, taught us that 'After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven...' He taught us that we are children of Father in Heaven, one who has a kingdom.

For the past ten years I have been encouraging ward members to qualify for and receive driver's licenses to improve their self-reliance. As I worked with some of them, and with my own children, it became quite evident that the objective in the minds of many driver's license examiners is to look for every reason to fail the candidate. Contrast that with what I believe is the objective of our Father in Heaven as He will examine us in the final judgement. I firmly believe that the objective of our Heavenly Father is motivated by His love for us, and His absolute wish that each and everyone of us would come unto Him in purity of heart so that He can welcome us back into His presence. It grieves Him when we choose to become unclean in thought, word or deed. He taught Moses 'Wherefore teach it unto your children, that all men, everywhere, must repent, or they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God, for no unclean thing can dwell there, or dwell in his presence; for, in the language of Adam, Man of Holiness is his name, and the name of his Only Begotten is the Son of Man, even Jesus Christ, a righteous Judge, who shall come in the meridian of time.' He wants everyone to pass, but every individual who passes will pass because he or she chose to repent. No one can pass while in an unclean state.

Alma taught 'And see that ye have faith, hope, and charity, and then ye will always abound in good works.' As we develop these characteristics as part of our being, we repent, become clean and can  inherit the mansions prepared for us. The Saviour taught 'In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.' How sad it will be for a mansion to be prepared, but we fail to turn up to occupy it!

The Saviour also told a parable of great power.

31 ¶When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

 32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:

 33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

 34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

 35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

 36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

 37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

 38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

 39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

 40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

 41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

 42 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:

 43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

 44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?

 45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

 46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

Some time ago I read about wealth creation. Robert Kyosaki mentioned hearing the Have, Be, Do relationship. In searching for this, I came across this by Tracy Corrigan 'The only way I could get a true definition of happiness for myself was to identify what it wasn’t. As in, what was absent: When I am NOT anxious, fearful, worried, scared, angry, resentful, depressed, sad, lonely, tired, jealous, greedy, lazy, hungry – I am at peace, and I am very happy. So, when I am calm, accepting, loving, kind, gentle, compassionate and empathetic towards myself, I am happy, and I can naturally extend those things to others because it is the very operating system of Who I Am. When I have let my judgments of the past, and projections onto the future go, I am fully present and happy with myself, wherever I am, doing exactly whatever it is I am doing at that moment. It is completely independent of people, places or things around me. BE happy is a state of being, not an emotion. That’s my definition of happiness for me, at least.'

In essence, as children of God, we HAVE divine potential. Sometimes we DO things that Heavenly Father wants us to DO. But, until we strive to BECOME, to BE, of a Divine Nature, we are not succeeding in Heavenly Father's vision for us. I recently heard someone comment on the term 'human beings', that we are not human doings or human knowings, but BEINGS.

Once again, to quote Jesus Christ in Matthew 22: 36-40:

36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

 37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

 38 This is the first and great commandment.

 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Love the Lord thy God with ALL thy heart, soul and mind. That ALL is everything.

I am reading the book The Undaunted and was impressed that young David is so excited when approaching his 6th birthday that he can start working at the mine! He will be underground in total darkness for most of 12-14 hours each day, earning some money to help his family. That touched my heart and made me think of the divine inspiration in Jacob's words 'And after ye have obtained a hope in Christ ye shall obtain riches, if ye seek them; and ye will seek them for the intent to do good—to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry, and to liberate the captive, and administer relief to the sick and the afflicted.'

In the Sunday School discussion today we have read about looking to Christ as the children of Israel were instructed to look to the brazen serpent 'And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live.' I have often thought about what this meant. If you were one of the children of Israel, in a camp of hundreds of thousands, even possibly 3 million people, what is the likelihood that you were conveniently close to the serpent to be able to simply turn and look? In all likelihood you would have needed to walk at least a few minutes, if not hours, to be able to look  upon it. But the promise was there, and it was simple - look, and live.

May we set out with devotion and commitment to follow the example of the faith, hope and charity exemplified by our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Once again, as verbalized by Alma:

22 And now my beloved brethren, I have said these things unto you that I might awaken you to a sense of your duty to God, that ye may walk blameless before him, that ye may walk after the holy order of God, after which ye have been received.

 23 And now I would that ye should be humble, and be submissive and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, both spiritual and temporal; always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive.

 24 And see that ye have faith, hope, and charity, and then ye will always abound in good works.

 25 And may the Lord bless you, and keep your garments spotless, that ye may at last be brought to sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the holy prophets who have been ever since the world began, having your garments spotless even as their garments are spotless, in the kingdom of heaven to go no more out.

Let us press forward in our duty to God being blameless, of the holy order, humble, submissive, gentle, spotless. Then we can be welcomed in to 'sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the holy prophets who have been ever since the world began' being comfortable in their presence, our confidence having waxed strong in the presence of God.

May our hearts be committed to so do, I hope and pray.

Compost, braai ashes, flames!

I have a special appreciation for compost because my mother taught me from young about its value.

I spent some time in 1980 to 1981 working under the lofty title of Horticultural Chemist. Part of that involved visiting a place where pine bark compost was made. They had large mounds covered with plastic sheets that would increase the buildup of heat in the mound and prevent excessive evaporation.

Compost is lovely. It is wonderful to dig a hole and put my hand into the hole. It is dirty (clean dirt), but it is hot, even without a plastic sheet over the heap. That heat is generated by earthworms, lice, bacteria and other decomposers that are working away at breaking down the organic material in the heap, releasing nutrient rich, light textured, dark brown material that is wonderful to add to soil for improving the quality of what is grown in the enriched soil. It gives a wonderful water holding, nutrient rich, aerated and well draining substrate that improves the growth of most plants. Some plants cope well without compost, some are better off without compost, but those are rare exceptions.

Sometimes I'll go to the compost heap that I have in my garden and pour on large amounts of cold water. That is not to dampen the spirit in a successful decomposer party, but that cold water is very quickly absorbed by the organic pile and the moisture improves the ability of the decomposers to do what they do best!

A few years ago I had a braai (barbecue) fire on which I cooked some meat on a Saturday afternoon. After the fire cooled I poured the ashes into the compost heap because ash adds valuable nutrients and texture to compost. I was confident that the ash was cold, and I would probably have watered it down with a hose to make sure that it was cold.

The next morning I was startled, to say the lest, to see flames leaping up outside my bedroom window. I rushed outside to hose down the compost heap! Some of the ashes must have got buried as I hosed  them down more than 12 hours before, and as cold as they were, had enough warmth in them that heat built up again with the warmth of the compost heap and then reached a point of combustion. The flames were about 2 metres high!

I was very glad that I was on hand when this excitement occurred and I could immediately douse the flames. A little later and I would have left home to go to Church and then the flames might have been undetected and it is scary to contemplate what damage might have occurred.

This little experience reminds me of the flame of testimony that may seem to be dead, but that can rekindle when enough warmth is added as in the "hot coals" story. It won't happen without warmth, and may not happen with warmth, but if it happens, it can be dramatic! May it happen as much and as often as Heavenly Father wants it to, and may we help to make it happen whenever He wants us to have a part in it.

Appreciating Providence

Today is Christmas eve. As I prayed this morning, I was thinking  about a TV set. It has become what it is to support the great industry that creates the content. Without the content, there would be no TV such as we have it. Entertainment, news, sport, learning, whatever the content, it's there, and so the means of presenting it to you on small to large screens was invented, developed, refined, marketed – all the steps involved in the process – and you get to watch the content. 

But you cannot enjoy the content without access to those devices that bring you the content, ensuring power and signal to those devices, and, in most cases, a paid subscription. The content is there whether you watch or not, but so many things are entirely within your control and choices that you make determine what content you view. 

When viewing, almost everything is living someone else's dreams and not particularly bringing you any closer to any of your own worthwhile dreams. All too often, time that we choose to spend watching what other people have dreamed actually prevents us from achieving some of the dreams that we really do want to achieve for ourselves!

I love the beauty of the sun today, the rain that fell yesterday that is so much needed in this severe drought, the fresh air, the mountains, great rivers and small streams, vegetation, all manner of life. All things that beautify this Earth whereon we dwell, that please the eye and gladden the heart. I praise my Messiah for His great providence and I desire to do all that I can to benefit from the 'content' that He wants me to enjoy. That is why He created it all. I love Him for it. 

This Christmas, and in the next year, let us enjoy the providence of a loving creator who has made so much 'content' available, by having the devices, power, signal, subscriptions, or whatever is required and within our control, to enjoy what He makes freely and abundantly available to us. 

I hope and pray that each end every one of us will give our love and devotion to Him – Jesus Christ – and His and our Heavenly Father, this Christmas and throughout the next year, to enjoy and benefit from His providence. I know that He is the great Creator. I love His creations. 

I have talked to Heavenly Father in prayer, and He has talked to me through the scriptures. This is not just some urban legend that I am sharing that someone somewhere sometime may have experienced, but this is my firsthand witness that I share from Cape Town on this, the day before Christmas 2016.

Do our spiritual muscles also ache when exercised after a long break?

Yesterday I exercised after six weeks of not specifically exercising.

I have spent a wonderful break with family and at the Temple, and I did walk and bend and lift and climb, but I did not do specific exercises that worked the muscles and heart. Then I did my normal 20 to 30 minutes of stretching, bending, running and lifting and today my muscles are letting me know all about it. Not too serious, but definitely aware of these muscles, especially in my legs and back.

This set me wondering as to whether someone who has not been exercising their faith might feel some pain and discomfort when doing some spiritual exercise such as pondering, scripture study, pondering the scriptures, or starting some form of spiritual activity? I suspect that the feeling of remorse about sins of omission or of commission, feelings of guilt or uncleanness, or anything else prompted by our conscience might give us similar discomfort, reminding us of those 'spirit muscles' and we may be tempted to complain and stop exercising. But, just as with physical exercise, it is important to continue exercising, and gradually, but determinedly, increase the pace and frequency of the exercise to get the spiritual heart pumping in a healthy manner and to improve the spiritual muscle tone and decrease the spiritual fat.

If you have been neglecting your spiritual exercise, or are feeling those discomforts from sudden exercise, I encourage you to exercise well and press forward with with a steadfastness in Christ, and persevere. The gain will definitely outweigh the pain.