cc: file, Mom, Sara and Des, Lloyd and Luana Warner, Darrell Krueger,Charles and Diane Cluff, and Claude and Forest Warner
"Thanks for the nice thoughts and comments about my first thoughtlet. Nobody has asked to be deleted from the list yet, nor has anyone passed on someone else in the extended Nelson or Hafen family that should be added. I know there are others whose e-mail addresses I don't have or have misplaced, and would appreciate hearing from you if you think they might be interested in this project.
It amazed me to wake up Monday morning to a nice long message from Aunt Luana describing some of her missionary experiences in Pakistan. She even included her own thoughtlet: `I expect that you and I will continue--ruling the world---perhaps laughing a little at ourselves as we do it.' Then on Tuesday I got the longest run-on paragraph Paul has written me in his life. It included: `I have been reading my scriptures everyday which is a rather new experience for me. I am learning sooooo much. My institute class is great as well.' My sister and I have talked more the last few weeks than we have the last few years thanks to e-mail's power to melt time and distance. Then I discovered my nephew, Brian, has his own home page: `http://www.cpsc. suu.edu/users/penny/brian.html' and I was pleased, later in the week, to read `Brian's glad someone has found his web page.'
Sometimes we all need to be noticed. It is so easy to get caught up in the swirl of day-to-day overcommitments we forget our roots and our destiny. I'm old enough and have done enough I'm not so interested in being noticed. But I am deeply interested in noticing, sharing, helping, serving, and making connections. It might seem impersonal, egotistical, and in some way negative for me to set out to broadcast a thoughtlet to my kids and copy my extended family each week. I'm sorry if it comes across that way. I hope that time will demonstrate some value in this project and specifically will show my sincerity and intent. I hope to write 480 of these thoughtlets, and realize that I am already 0.4% of the way there. I hope the connections opened and kept open through this effort will be like the capillary osmosis that keeps a mesquite tree alive in the desert, and will grow into eternal family bonds providing a mechanism for help when needed in this life and for enhaning family memories to ease our transition into the next phase of our existence."