Easter Eggs

Yesterday, I read this blog post by a blogger (@Ta_RynRyn) in, I believe, South Africa (though that’s really immaterial to the topic), and she commented on Easter Eggs.

When you’re on an easter egg hunt, you walk along the lawn, and you glance at the bushes and you see a splash of color. You lean down and pick it up. Maybe it’s a colored egg, a real one, that’s been hard-boiled. Yum! A little salt and pepper and you’ve got breakfast. Maybe it’s a plastic one. You crack it open, and there you see a piece of candy or a dollar. Woo Hoo!

In life, there are easter eggs, too. You’re going along your “normal” life, working, caring for kids, or whatever you do, and something a little bit different happens. Maybe you planned it, maybe you didn’t. But it’s nice, and when you open it up, there’s something sweet.

I’m not talking about the landmark events that change the course of your life. These are wonderful, and powerful. For me, these are things like my wedding day, the birth of each of my children, serving a mission for my church, buying a new house, etc...

These are smaller things that enrich your life, that remind me that I have a life, and it’s a wonderful life.

I made a list, and this is not in any order, and if I were to make the list on a different day, it would probably have other items, and maybe more of them.

Jodi and I traveling to Yellowstone

Early in our marriage, Jodi and I planned a trip, by ourselves, to Yellowstone. It was one of the first of many that we’ve taken together, and one of the few without family or friends along. It was also one of those “I’ve grown up, now” moments for me.

Travelling to Mazatlan

We would often travel with her family to various locations, and one that we did several times was to go to Mazatlan, Mexico. These were always great times, and I got to use my mission spanish. These times really helped Jodi and I bond with wonderful memories, like when I got up early, ran to the beach to buy really fresh shrimp, and cooked it for her for breakfast.

Going to the Smithsonian

When I was a kid, growing up in Indiana, my dad had these 2-week consulting jobs with the Navy in Washington, DC. The whole family would go, and while he was doing physics stuff, mom, Ruth, and I would wander the halls of the Smithsonian. On our way there, and on our way back, we would also visit Civil War and other historical sites. It fueled my lifelong love of learning.

Performing with ROC

After high school, and after my mission, but before I moved out on my own, I spent a bit of time singing for a band named “ROC”. They were an actual working cover band, and I learned a lot from them.

Meeting Chance Thomas

Also early in my marriage and my adult life, I met another musician by the name of Chance Thomas. He introduced me to many people and opportunities in the Salt Lake are music scene. He went on to establish a great name for himself in the world of video game scoring. We don’t see each other as often as I’d like, these days, but I count him as one of my best friends.

Meeting John Newman

Another best friend that I don’t get to see too often is John Newman. We share so many connections, music writing, gaming, game design, thoughts and philosophies, etc... He inspired me to write my food blog, http://marksblackpot.com

Getting the publishing contract & holding my first book

Writing that food blog gave me the opportunity to become a published author! After writing about my journey learning to cook in my Dutch ovens, I was approached by a publisher, and we did seven cookbooks together! What a great time that was.

Gaming with my sons

As my sons have grown up, I’ve shared with them my love of gaming. This has led to the creation of our tabletop role-playing game, TheHerosTale.com. I’ve literally watched them grow from anxious and confused teenagers to capable adults, along with many of their friends, from across a table scattered with papers, miniatures, and dice!

Attending the temple with Jodi

This one isn’t so much a single event as just a process that we do. It’s always wonderful to set next to her in the celestial room and pray.

Something that will happen next year

Yeah, so, who knows what’s next, right?  Along the way, I’ll keep looking for those bright bits of color underneath the bushes.

Mark has a lifelong testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his Dutch Oven blog.

Mark's Other Blog Posts: name post, name post,

A Funny Thing Happened Tonight at Temple Square

So, we went downtown to Temple Square tonight to look at lights and fountains. Nothing surprising there, we do that every year. This year, however, we were treated to a gem of an experience.

We had walked across the street to the City Creek Mall, to look at the fountain show (really dazzling, but so short as to not make it worth the wait), and we were lining up at the pedestrian crossing to go back into Temple Square.

At that corner was a man standing on a concrete platform holding a lit-up sign that said, “Joseph Lied”. He was shouting all kinds of anti-mormon rhetoric, mostly about how the God of the Bible wasn’t the same as Joseph Smith’s God, and bla, bla, bla.

I’ve heard it all before. I grew up with my Evangelical Christian friends trying to convince me that there were no more prophets or revelation, or that we were saved by grace, not by works, and any of a number of reasons why they were right and I was wrong. I had learned to tune them out.

Suddenly I noticed that the young family standing in front of me were singing, “Silent Night”, kind of as if in protest of the protester. I picked up on it, and started singing along.  She turned around right away and smiled, confirming my suspicion. By the time we finished and started to loop it around again, a lady behind me had joined, and my father, standing next to me was singing along.

It wasn’t long before the entire crowd standing there waiting at the crosswalk was singing strong, “Silent Night, Holy Night,...”

And he and his partner went quiet.

Then, just as we were finishing the loop, someone a few behind me started singing “Oh, Come, All Ye Faithful”, and he didn’t have a chance to start up again.  We were all enjoying singing along and smiling at each other, and observing how the contention had faded, when the light dinged, and it was time to cross.  We kept singing as we crossed, and didn’t stop until the song ended, and the preacher was lost in the back distance.

On the way home, my boys commented on how the spirit was there and I pointed out how gentleness can overcome shouting.  It was a very powerful message to me.

Mark has a lifelong testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his Dutch Oven blog.

An Epiphany in the Temple

One of the funny, odd, and even cool things about going to the temple is that you learn things you've known all along, but you learn them on a deeper level. You "get it" better than you did before, or you see that something you've always know is more important than you thought it was.

That last one is actually what happened to me last night.

My wife and I went with our ward to do sealings on assignment. As we were in there, listening to the ceremony, I just got overwhelmed with the Spirit and I suddenly realized just how connected the family is to everything in the Gospel. In fact, the family is at the very core of the Gospel. Everything that we do is related to our family. Our temporal family, our eternal family, our extended spiritual family. Everything comes back to that.

And everything about humanity is drawn from that core. Our relationships. Even our genders, sex and genetics. It all comes back to family.

We are all created into a big, vast spiritual family, as children of God. It's his purpose to bring about our exaltation. To that end, we're born into physical families. As a core part of bringing us back, those families need to be made eternal, and not just temporary.

The core of the family is the husband and the wife. Everything rests on them. The responsibility of bringing their family back to God is on their shoulders. That's why the sealing of the husband and wife is such a powerful ceremony. Pay attention to it the next time you do a sealing, and maybe you'll see the same epiphany I did.

OK, so I'm not doing badly as a husband and father, but I'm not doing my best, either. Bit by bit, I'll step it up, though.


Mark has a lifelong testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his Dutch Oven blog.



Mark's Other Blog Posts: Martyrs and Anthems, Invoking the Mo'Boy Doctrine, Again, Dutch Oven Whole Wheat Bread

Oquirrh Mountain Temple Dedication

Today, I got to take my family to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple dedication. That was a very special occasion, and very spiritual. I found it very interesting, however to notice what touched me the most.

There were probably five speakers before the dedicatory prayer, and even though they were excellent speakers, I honestly don't remember a thing any of them said. I do know that they all talked about the temple.

What got to me was the music. There was a small choir (they couldn't fit many people into the temple chapel), but they sang well, and with real enthusiasm as well as reverence. And, at the end, after the Hosanna Shout, when we sang "The Spirit of God", I choked up a couple of times, and couldn't go on singing. It's a powerful hymn, for a powerful setting.



Mark has a lifelong testimony of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (the Mormon Church). Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his Dutch Oven blog.



Mark's Other Blog Posts: Dutch Oven Mushrooms Bellagio at my Birthday DOG, Riffz iz cool,