jamesrivergirl: April 2009

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

a page from this chapter: Connected

There is an ad I see fairly often on "pbs kids." It shows a little paper person kicking a ball and the little paper person kicks the ball off the table onto the floor. The little paper person goes to the edge of the table and leans over to look at the ball far below, unable to reach it. But then, a chain of little paper people are revealed as they unfold from the first little paper person. They retreive the ball by unfolding all the way down to the floor. Once on top of the table again, the little paper people form a circle and the kick the ball to each other. The announcer says, "Connections make life meaningful."

I saw this ad for perhaps the 50th time on Tuesday. (Yes, my son really does watch that much t.v.)

The Spirit confirms to me that personal connections do make life meaningful, but even more than that, that spiritually, we are connected:

That our individual welfare is linked to others and we are to help one another, That our Heavenly Father answers our prayers through other people, That we are instruments in His hands to answer other people’s prayers, And that when we kick the ball off the table, we need not, and cannot, retrieve by ourselves. And although it is through our direct relationship with the Savior that we are saved or helped, often other people are supposed to be involved in the process.

Developing understanding of this personal-interconnectedness is perhaps the biggest lesson I have been learning while we live in Lubbock.

B. and I are often--continually?--blessed by the generosity of others and their willingness to listen and obey heavenly promptings. It is both daunting and happy to hope to become like them--to be one of the little paper people in the chain that retrieves the ball.

And I hope that through regular temple attendance and spiritual progress, I can become more capable of the love it takes to be a good servant.

More capable, more responsible, more willing.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Spring Mosaic and Two Spring Poems

A Prayer in Spring
by Robert Frost

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers today;

And give us not to think so far away

As the uncertain harvest; keep us here

All simply in the springing of the year.

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,

Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;

And make us happy in the happy bees,

The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.

And make us happy in the darting bird

That suddenly above the bees is heard,

The meteor that thrusts with needle bill,

And off a blossom in mid-air stands still.

For this is love and nothing else is love,

The which it is reserved for God above

To sanctify to what far ends He will,

But which it only needs that we fulfill.

I Meant To Do My Work Today

by Richard Le Gallienne

I meant to do my work today,

But a brown bird sang in the apple tree,

And a butterfly flitted across the field,

And all the leaves were calling me.
And the wind went sighing over the land,

Tossing the grasses to and fro,

And a rainbow held out its shining hand--

So what could I do but laugh and go?

Jana inspired me with her recent post. If you happen to post a Spring photo or mosaic of your own (or of generous flickr fairies) I want to see it! Poems, too.

References:

Poems found at: http://www.dltk-holidays.com/spring/poem/ (I want to explore it more.)