The final days of August have been hectic, and I’ve been scrambling to keep up.  It’s been tougher than usual because the bug I’ve been fighting is the Rocky of sick bugs:  He WON’T GIVE UP!!!  Just when I think I’ve beaten him down he rallies  and hits me with cough spasms to the chest, drips to the nose and weakness in the knees.  The anticipation of this illness ending has me giddy, but I digress.

I’m loving my house this week. A lot!  We hosted a couple of parties for my cousin who’s son was getting married on the 27th.  The evening of the 26th we had the  families of the bride and groom gather to set up tables for the outdoor reception the next evening, and to have some in-law bonding time.  Since I can’t help myself, I broke out all the in-law bonding songs in my catalogue and sang them with all the gusto I could muster between coughs.   My cousin’s son, Josh, is one of our favorite people, and his bride is gorgeous inside and out so it was easy celebrating the union…but there were challenges.

Friday morning the couple was married in the Salt Lake Temple and by 5 o’clock that afternoon the tables and  chairs were beautifully arrangeded around our yard.  We live on 20 acres of oats and alfalfa in a log home with a bit of a pond in the front.  It’s a lovely setting for an outdoor reception but when the weather gets angry, not so much. The wind kicked up in a heart beat and blew everything either into the stormy abyss or the pond.  Disaster was lurking, but then the house came to the rescue.  We moved everything inside, out of the rain and the wind, and found a way to keep everybody happy and dry and to feed a couple hundred folks who came to join the celebration AND STAYED!!!!

It was great, great fun, and the food was especially yummy.  My cousin’s family knew a sensational mexican cook who blew everyone away with her fajitas, fresh guacamole,  fresh EVERYTHING for that matter, melon water and tres leches cakes.   The winds blew and the rains came but we were all happy as clams.  (I use the expression because they were steak fajitas, not seafood)

After the newly weds danced their dance and left for their honeymoon the rest of the group moved the tables out of the great room and did some serious dancing themselves.  My Bose sound system got a work out, but filled the measure of its creation. We Rocked On!!!

About 10 or 10:30pm the clean up began.  It was amazing.  M2B:) amazing.  In less than half an hour the house was restored.  I couldn’t believe it.   But when I thought about it, of course I could believe it, and this was one of the happiest moments of the week for me.  Many hands make light work.   I’ve heard that my entire life, and it’s true, but seeing it happen warms my heart.  Reminds me of the scene in the movie Witness where the Pennsylvania Dutch gather together to put up a barn.  The whole community shows up and everyone does their part to help someone in need.  The spirit of that love and support and service was with us in our log home and it carried over to the next day when the trucks and trailers arrived to collect the tables and chairs, table cloths, plates and  center pieces, fajita grills and various and sundry adornments of the night before.  Big smiles on everyone’s faces, congratulating each other on the party of the year that almost got rained out.

On Sunday my wife’s side of the family came up for dinner and family counsel regarding my in-laws moving in with us on a permanent basis.  Turns out this week, while my mother-in-law was staying with us, her husband  had a stroke while  fishing in Idaho with my brother-law.  The tests confirm his congestive heart failure is shutting him down and he can’t be the primary care giver for his wife any longer.  The big family discussion was whether to move them in with us, and the other patients in the SCOTSHAVEN HOME for INVALID TENANTS or into a nursing home.

For those of you with aging parents, you know how these family counsels go.  The old folks don’t want to be a burden and the young folks don’t want to take away their parents and grandparents dignity.   As I listened to, and participated in the discussions I was once again moved by the spirit of the event.  Everyone around that table was not just worried about caring for the old people, but about caring for Lynne and me.  It was SWEETNESS on STEROIDS….not fake, not phony, just love and I felt it and it stirred something inside me that expanded whatever love I had there, and brought it out.  It continues to linger, and I suspect it will as we embark on this adventure.

So, we’re prepping for the move-in.  Clearing out closets, rearranging furniture, bringing the folks bedroom furniture from their home in Layton, stocking the fridge hear their room with favorite goodies, and picking up meds at the pharmacy (with a forklift)   Again, I have to say I love that my house is big enough to accomodate everyone and I pray we’ll be able to  keep the spirit of a  M2B:) palpable everyday.

You know the real test of the mission I’m on,  finding meaningful and real happiness every single day, is now.  But I’m not alone…there are angels in my house.

The door from the garage to the entry has been moved over about five inches to make room for the chair lift that’s coming next week.  My mother-in-law arrived this afternoon for what we hope will be an extended stay.  Both our mothers are under one roof and tonight they sat together and laughed at the predicament that is their lives:  Old, in serious pain, living with their kids and wishing they were dead.  It was decided that whoever tells the funniest story that gets them laughing to death wins.

My first attempt was to make up a name for our little nursing home here on Mill Road.  It didn’t sound that funny at first, but the Scotshaven Home for Invalid Tenants brings a chuckle as an acronymn.

This week I didn’t write daily blogs about my Mission To Be Happy because I was “in and out” all week long.  By that I mean I wasn’t exactly coherent that much of the week…just enough to fill some obligations and then it was back in the sack with remedies galore.  The few M2B:) moments I have a vague recollection of are as follows:

Tuesday night, the 17th I took enough Sudafed and cough medicine to make it to the Repartee Gallery for the unveiling of Liz Swindle’s new paintings of the parables.    They brought in a baby grand piano so I could accompany McKenzie Turley who came down from Logan to sing my song THE MESSAGE THAT CAN CHANGE THE WORLD (HASN’T CHANGED).  McKenzie did a terrific job and it was wonderful seeing how music can enrich a visual experience.  Truth is, it was a spiritual experience hearing Liz talk about the inspiration behind her paintings and I was grateful to be there.

The next night we did a similar presentation at the second floor of the BYU Bookstore only McKenzie was unable to attend so my song was sung by the composer (rarely my first choice in sharing a new song).  To prep for this event I tried a combination of DayQuil, B-12, Diabetic Robitussin and Ricola lozenges.   The bad news was the meds didn’t make me sound that great, but the good news is I don’t sound much different when I’m 100% healthy.   Being on the BYU campus during education week is amazing.  One clerk at the bookstore said Education Week was EFY for old people.  Having never been a presenter at Education Week I’ve never really experienced the full frenzy of that many great people in one place expanding their hearts, their minds and their spirits.

Took me awhile to recover from the appearances with Liz.  Apparently no good deed goes unpunished.  I expected a full recovery by the 20th, but it was not to be.  Lynne was anxious for me to get better because the Egginton Family Reunion was being held at our place on the 21st.  This was the first time in many, many years we were hosting the event, and Lynne wanted it to be a memory to inspire her side of the family to get as excited about family history work as she is…or, at the very least, have all the cousins and the kids of cousins discover what a fun family they were a part of.

It was held outside, around the firepit.  Lots of great food, games for the kiddies, guitars, singing and s’mores around the fire and best of all….stories.  Telling the stories about Pop Egginton and the legacy he left.  Even though these weren’t directly “my” people, they became my people more completely than they were before the reunion.  Although I was only hitting on two cylinders, I felt the joy.

Spent the next day in bed…all day…but when I came to, I had a M2B:) smile on my face from the night before.

Today I am woozy.  This bug is a tough little guy.  Kept me in bed til 2pm.  I tried coughing him out, but he’s still there.   All the therapies I’m taking may be helping, but I don’t see much improvement.  It’s sort of like the claim of the stimulus package…things aren’t better but OH, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN WAY WORSE if we hadn’t done anything.   I’m not sure what to do next.  I’m slated to be at a few events during education week down at BYU.  The 17th at 7:00pm is a special event with Liz Swindle at the Repartee Gallery at the University Mall, and then the 18th at 6pm at the BYU Bookstore. If you read this and are close, please come check it all out.  You’ll be my M2B:) moment if you say something like, “Hey Michael….lookin’ good for a dead guy”.

Gotta go.  Time for another pill.  When it slows the coughs down, I’ll claim my M2B:) moment of today.

I am sick.  In bed all day long, sick as a dog (though I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a really sick dog.  If I did, and the dog could speak, I believe the dog would say, “I’m sick as a songwriter”)   During my moments of waking, and between coughs and sneezes, I’ve found myself singing an old song from my youth…with a slight lyric change:

I fought the bug and the bug won, I fought bug and the bug won.

Silly, I know, but it gave me a brief M2B:) moment.

This was a day of beauty.  It began early at the wedding of my nephew and his beautiful bride.  Strikingly beautiful, really.  Fairytale like loveliness.  And a beautiful ceremony.  Although I didn’t really know David’s bride very well, it became clear this morning that her beauty runs deep.

And speaking of beauty running deep, I got a chance to reunite with David’s sister, Brooke, who just returned from Singapore where she’s been serving as a missionary for 18 months.  Brooke has always been a classic beauty (think a young Brooke Shields to get a bit of a visual image) and yet seeing her this morning there was so much more to her than that gorgeous visual image.  Her spirit beamed out of her eyes and in every word she spoke.

At the wedding brunch I was surrounded by beautiful children.  The newest arrival to the group was Grace, David’s niece, scheduled to be blessed tomorrow at church at the same meeting Brooke will be reporting on her mission.  I could not just see but actually feel the precious beauty of a little one so serene, and (I believe) so recently in the presence of the Creator of everything beautiful in the universe.  It gives one hope for the future of the world.

And speaking of hope for the future of the world, this evening I filled in as MC for the Miss Davis County Pageant (part of the Miss Utah, Miss America competition).  It was a last minute request from our cousin who was in charge of the event and desperate because their scheduled MC couldn’t make it. The 12 young women in the competition were wonderful, and graceful under pressure.  I was impressed by their beauty, but more impressed by their desire to serve as reflected in their platforms.

But the MOST beautiful part of the evening came just before the voting.  Each contestant was escorted by a family member (mostly fathers) for their final evening gown walk across the stage as I read the words their families had prepared about their beloved daughter.  I’m an emotional guy anyway, but this really got me.  I was remembering when my own daughter Meggan was in the Wasatch County version of this same pageant, and it was a struggle to keep my composure as I read those parental letters to those beautiful girls.

I gave each contestant a signed copy of MISSION TO BE HAPPY, not because they needed my songs to remember how to choose happiness in their lives, but because they had given me so much joy in just being with them.

I didn’t get home until late.  I am exhausted and fighting some bug that’s been invading the McLean household, but I am grateful for the gift of this day of so much beauty.

I saw a video of Bucky dancing that my son-in-law sent me.

To see the video, follow the link below:
http://www.facebook.com/n/?video%2Fvideo.php&v=418844759901&mid=2d006e2G5af31649da49Gaee2d1G1d&n_m=mcleanmusic%40mac.com

Sure made me smile.   What do you think?

This was unexpected.  Our friends from Washington State, the Jacksons, kidnapped us and took us to Nine Mine Canyon to look at the Freemont Indians rock art (the petroglyphs), carved on the sides of rocks about 800 years ago…or maybe even longer.  To get down to Nine Mile Canyon we took a very scenic route from Heber through some absolutely GORGEOUS country that gave our friend’s 4X4 truck a work out and my back an impromtu chiropractic adjustment….make that adjustmentS!   It was great fun and something I would not have thought to do, but it was a perfect day for the trip, and getting a chance to spend time we friends we loved FOREVER was wonderful.

When we got home, it was late, and I asked Lynne before we fell asleep if my songs were anything like petroglyphs…you know, art, left behind for future generations to ponder and explore.

She said no.   Petroglyphs are NOTHING like your songs.  There won’t be CD players in 800 years. No one will listen, no one will care.  Sorry honey, but if you want to leave a lasting legacy, you could finish painting the chairs on the porch!  Goodnight.

I hate it when she sugar coats it.  If only she’d tell me how she REALLY feels.

My friend Micah Gogan got married today and Lynne and I were invited to attend the ceremony and the reception.   Between the marriage and the party Lynne and I ran a few errands in the city and got a call from Micah’s dad, asking if Lynne and I would be willing to sing a song at the celebratory festivities.  I said yes, not realizing that Lynne would go into panic mode:  “We haven’t rehearsed!!! We HAVE to rehearse!”

“But Lynne, we don’t have time to rehearse.  Let’s just sing our song about ONENESS that I wrote a couple of years ago.  We’ve done it before and it turned out great.”

Those words didn’t seem to bring her inner peace. She scrambled through her purse looking for pen and paper so she could write the words down.  Couldn’t find anything but a napkin from Wendy’s and a diaper for Sadie.  I suggested the napkin because it was yellow and the lettering would show up better.

We drove around the block enough times to practice the song in the car and then found a parking space and took the elevator up to the ninth floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building where the reception was underway…I figured this out when I saw how fast the hors d’oeuvres were disappearing.

Between hugs and hellos Lynne would pull me aside and start singing her part, very softly, to make sure she was prepared.  I promised her she’d be great and everything we be fine.   Then, mid-meal we were invited to sing our song.  I went as relaxed as could be and Lynne was trying to disguise her anxiety.

When we finished the audience was very kind and appreciative, and truth be told, it went pretty well except for one small, little error.  I played the song a third too high.

When we sat down she kicked my shins.  I deserved it, and it made me laugh.  If only Lynne were on a M2B:) she’d have seen the humor….and I’d have avoided the bruise.

I got a call from my cousin Kathleen Judd from Kanab.  She’s my dad’s brother’s oldest daughter and I’ve always loved her and her sisters, but even more so as we get older.  Her dad, my Uncle Gilbert, is ninety.  She’s coming up to see him next week, possibly for the last time, and wanted to see if we’d all be around so she and her sister Rosemary could stop by for a visit. Just having the phone visit to set up the in-person visit was enough to brighten my whole day.  We talked, we laughed, we got kinda caught up, but not so much that we didn’t save some stories to share when next week comes around.  I know I’m supposed to be living in the moment that is now, but I’m really looking forward to seeing my cool cousins next week.