We learn through the discomfort of loss.
For it falls out
That what we have we prize not to the worth
Whiles we enjoy it, but being lacked and lost,
Why, then we rack the value, then we find
The virtue that possession would not show us
While it was ours.
William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing
I am so grateful that Joseph knelt amongst the trees and that God called him to the great work of the restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ. I am blessed by this man's humility to pray, then his faith to act and his loyalty to the cause of Christ.
When Joseph knelt amongst the trees, the hopes of all the centuries crescendoed into one. As from a fierce, effulgent flame, the Father spake the farm boy's name and introduced His Son.
When Joseph pleaded through the night, Moroni came, and clothed in might, revealed the plates of gold. The Baptist, Peter, James and John, with keys of power proclaimed the dawn, by prophets long foretold.
When Joseph built a house of God and sent switch messengers abroad with tidings of glad things, The Lord restored His sealing power and set a watchman on the tower to hail the King of Kings.
When Joseph bled in Carthage jail, his spirit slipped beyond the veil into the realms of grace, Where once again, as in his youth, amid a blaze of light and truth, he saw his Father's face.
A beautiful, uncited poem, read by Justin Collings in his Joseph's School speech, transcribed by me. If anyone confirms the original author, please let me know.
Fierce, effulgent flame
1 In that day thou shalt come, O Lord; and I will put my trust in thee. Thou shalt say unto thy people, for mine ear hath heard thy voice; thou shalt say unto every soul, Flee unto my mountain; and the righteous shall flee like a bird that is let go from the snare of the fowler.
2 For the wicked bend their bow; lo, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart, to destroy their foundation.
3 But the foundations of the wicked shall be destroyed, and what can they do?
4 For the Lord, when he shall come into his holy temple, sitting upon God’s throne in heaven, his eyes shall pierce the wicked.
5 Behold his eyelids shall try the children of men, and he shall redeem the righteous, and they shall be tried. The Lord loveth the righteous, but the wicked, and him that loveth violence, his soul hateth.
Psalm 11, Joseph Smith Translation
Babies are of the very most beautiful parts of life. They are so pure, so beautiful, so heavenly. Being united with my born children for the first time has been a singularly wonderful experience.
In a recent interview with Nicholas Eberstadt, I heard this observation from his Oct 2024 article on global depopulation.
Lant Pritchett discovered the most powerful national fertility predictor ever detected. That decisive factor turned out to be simple: what women want. ... There is an almost one-to-one correspondence around the world between national fertility levels and the number of babies women say they want to have. This finding underscored the central role of volition — of human agency — in fertility patterns.
More indicative than biological nature, economic situation or social circumstances. What we desire is important -- to ourselves, our families, our communities and nations, and to the souls that wait to be born.
She had days to count in which to figure this out. Bless her.
Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength.
Corrie ten Boom
Goes well with:
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
Reinhold Neibuhr (disputed, but eh..)
I control myself and so little else.
No ease, just work and creation by divine design.
God left the world unfinished for man to work his skill upon. He left the electricity in the cloud, the oil in the earth. He left the rivers unbridged and the forests unfelled and the cities unbuilt. God gives to man the challenge of raw materials, not the ease of finished things. He leaves the pictures unpainted and the music unsung and the problems unsolved, that man might know the joys and glories of creation.
Ease remains tempting. There are many willing to sell it for money.
Creation continues calling to my spirit. When I awaken to this calling, the choicest experiences have opened to me.
The reach of the government continues to grow. We must ask what it receding.
Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.
Benjamin Franklin
Nations are made up of people. How am I doing? Am I helping or hurting?
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other
John Adams
A person needs his own limiting principles, not just the laws. There will never be enough laws for the variety of folly he is capable of.
Neither the wisest constitution nor the wisest laws will secure the liberty and happiness of a people whos manners are universally corrupt.
Samuel Adams
It would be wisest to take the commandments from the ultimate Lawgiver and apply them as best we may, in service of self, family, community and country. Here is another way in which man cannot serve two masters.
I pray that I give honor to my father and mother and those before me, largely in the form of mercy, for their faults admidst their great toil and sacrifice, even specifically for me. And I hope for the same mercy in my time.
It is easy to despise the warts we notice in others and glory in our own apparent goodness.
There is a generation that curseth their father, and doth not bless their mother.
There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness.
Proverbs 30:11-12
As I've aged, I've changed taste from what I can broadly call exciting to beautiful.
I also think I've always had a sense, sometimes latent, of what beauty is. I think we each do.
An example: music.
As a youth, I was more easily excited. I would look for the most energetic, high-tempo pieces to play on the piano. How fast and how loud could my fingers play?
As I go on, I seek less excitement and value more of beauty, in subtlety, dynamics, soaring swells and pondering pianissimo.
I still like perspiring tempo Mannheim Steamroller's Motivator album. I still like jubilant celebration of Dave Bruebeck's Unsquare Dance. And I now add to that the surreal spiritual experience of taking in Andrea Bocelli singing the Lord's Prayer.
Why is that? Change in energy? Exposure to more of life's experiences? Development of different human emotion? Seeking for the long-lasting? Needing calm admidst increasing pressure, noise and activity? Learning to taste what is truly beautiful?
It's good to know what you really want and what you don't want.
Stop seeking out the storms and enjoy more fully the sunlight.