Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Why "Hinges"?

Ok, so I've had a few people ask me why I titles my blog "Hinges" because they thought it was kind of odd and random and didn't really get it.  So I will take a minute to explain.

I actually borrowed the idea from an analogy that President Gordon B. Hinkley used several times in talks and firesides when he was a General Authority.  He said:

"I approached a large farm gate one day.  I lifted the latch and opened the gate.  The movement at the hinges was so slight as to be scarcely discernible.  But the other end of the gate cut a great arc sixteen feet in radius.  Looking at the movement of the hinges alone, one would never dream of the magnified action that came as a result of that tiny movement.

"So it is with the decisions in our lives.  Some small thought, some small word, some small action can lead to tremendous consequences."

There have been big events in my life--leaving for college, getting married, giving birth to children, mourning the deaths of loved ones, etc.--but the substance of my life is all the small moments in between.  Getting married, for example, was a hugely momentous thing.  But what has made marriage something phenomenal was not a beautiful, perfectly decorated wedding or feats of romantic fantasy.  What has made Doug and I the people we are as individuals and the couple we are as one are all the tiny little moments that pass each day--a brief phone call at work to tell him about something funny the 2 year old did, a never-neglected kiss as he walks out the door, a tender, understanding glance from across the room that no one else even noticed.

And so I thought it a fitting title for a blog that contains mostly picture and thoughts about the seemingly little things in life--moments spent laughing with my children or talking with my husband.  A log of thoughts and activities that I don't imagine are terribly exciting or interesting to anyone else, but create minute by minute, day by day, the hinges on which my life swings.  Tiny little movements that determine the arc of my life, who I am.  All the little stuff that matters to me.


1 comment:

...Laura... said...

Interesting. You could have just stopped at "kind of odd and random"... I just figured it fit you! ;p