Enjoy the Marvelous Journey-a lesson from my mom

These last few days, I've found myself feeling a little down

Life goes along and I feel extremely blessed, yet things do pile up. 

 I can usually deal, but I've got lots to do and then my back flares up and puts me down.

 (literally)

 So irritating..so as I was wallowing I just happened to open a book of my mom's. 

 It was her outline for Relief Society lessons. 

 I just happened to open it to a lesson written just for me

(was this by chance..or is mom watching over me?) 

 

Anyway, as I read through the lesson I could hear my mother as if she was talking to me.

The lesson was titled

 "Making Effective Use of Present Circumstances." 

Basically the lesson teaches us (me) to be happy in the present,

 to not look for something to happen down the road. 

 Mom tells how wise Merlin gave King Arthur good advice when the King was feeling low. 

"The best thing for being sad, said Merlin, is to learn something. 

That is the only thing that never fails." 

 

So I need to stop and ask myself,

 "what am I suppose to learn in my present circumstance?" 

 How can I improve myself and my life right now? 

 

She told of a young girl who was having trouble living in a far away land being newly married. 

 The young girl wanted to give up and come home. 

Her mother wrote her a short message -

"Two men look out from prison bars; one saw mud, the other saw the stars."

The girl realized from this brief message that she needed to change the way she was looking at things and she would be happy.

 

She includes these quotes.  "Oliver Wendell Holmes said:  Many people die with their music still in them.  Why is this so?  Too often it is because they are always getting ready to live.  Before they know it, time runs out.  Tagor expressed a similar thought in these words: I have spent my days stringing and unstringing my instrument, while the song I came to sing remains unsung."

 

President Kimball, "My plea therefore is this: Let us get our instruments tightly strung and our melodies sweetly sung.  Let us not die with our music still in us.  Let us rather use this precious mortal probation to move confidently and gloriously upward toward the eternal life."

She ends the lesson saying,

 "Our challenge then is to see life as a whole, to discover the wonders of the present and to enjoy the marvelous journey."

She certainly enjoyed every minute of her journey!

I'm grateful to my angel mother who is still teaching me how to live. 

She continues to watch over me, she continues to be an example to me..what a blessing she continues to be in my life.