What I have learned
My mind is full and I need to put some of it to word so I can see myself thinking out loud. I am using this forum. My thoughts are jumbled and I tend to ramble. Read on if you wish.
I recently attended the funeral of my Aunt S. She passed from this existence/life to the next more than a week ago. Thus it has given me a great deal of time to reflect, ponder, and search my soul for answers that have weighed on my mind for a long time.
She was only 6 years my senior. I reflected upon those moments when we were playmates during my summer visits. She taught me how to dream big. I pondered the times in my life when she moved in and became part of my everyday life. She would come and go as we moved from state to state or home to home. I have spent several hours searching for answers to those times when we did not see eye to eye and wonder why. I don't know that I have all of the answers about our relationship, but my eyes have been opened to a different plane of understanding that I need to talk about. Sometimes it amazes me, well all the time it amazes me, how and when personal revelation is received.
May I start off by declaring up front that I know, without doubt, that there is more to existence/life or this mortal experience than just being. I don't claim to understand all the In's and Out's of it, but I know that I have loving parents that care for me both in this mortal frame and in my spiritual soul/spirit. Life with both of them is patterned along the same similar foundations. It took two of them, Mother and Father, male and female, to create the existence I have.
Their desires for me, their offspring, are similar in fashion as well. They can see in me potential, ability, and talent that I have not always recognized. They are willing to do everything in their power and ability to help me reach the maximum in all those areas. Yet, they know that they cannot do it for me. They understand, though it is often difficult to watch, that I must learn to recognize the attributes for myself. I must find the desire within to reach, develop, or obtain them. This is part of the foundation - it is called agency. I have been blessed to have two sets of parents that have patterned their lives upon the same foundations. Not all of us are as fortunate, though raise upon these founding principles prior to this mortal life, some parents within this experience have not chosen to fashion their lives upon the same foundation. They have exercised their agency differently.
My Aunt was born under similar circumstances as mine. Yet, our experiences are individual. She was born into a small frame. At the age of 13 she was diagnosed with the life changing condition of diabetes. She grew up in a different city and house, with different siblings, associates, and challenges. We were married within 6 months of each other. Each of us was blessed with our first child within the same year. By that time she had already experienced her first double transplant. Over the course of our lives, I was blessed with three more children, she was blessed with two more kidneys and a pancreas. I lost an eye, she lost several toes. This past week, she moved from this life to the next. For whatever reason, I continue on.
So, what does this have to do with anything?
Let me see if I can share what I understand. I believe that our first parents had watched us grow. They shared with us their observations and beliefs of what we could become. Though they knew this potential to be true, they knew that for us to know and accept the same truth, we would have to endure an existence outside of their presence, but within their influence, if we chose to accept it.
Neither my Aunt or I fully knew or understood what this existence would require, but we chose to exercise our agency and fall from the presence of our first parents that we might know and learn for ourselves as they did.
We did not always get to chose the experiences we would endure, but we have always had the the choice of how we would act when placed in the experience. As I have reflected upon the experience and example of my Aunt's mortality, I am grateful for what she has taught me.
Though not fun or easy, adhering to the founding principles our first parents have given us, makes the burdens of this experience lighter.
We always have a choice.
Family is always worth fighting for.
Always look for the good in other.
Flowers make the world brighter.
The Atonement is real.
Change is not easy, but possible.
The possible requires action, commitment, pain, love, desire, faith, will, belief, heart, and soul, but it is worth it.
This is part of what I believe. Thanks for letting me ramble. Hope you found some value to it. Until my mind starts overflowing again.
I recently attended the funeral of my Aunt S. She passed from this existence/life to the next more than a week ago. Thus it has given me a great deal of time to reflect, ponder, and search my soul for answers that have weighed on my mind for a long time.
She was only 6 years my senior. I reflected upon those moments when we were playmates during my summer visits. She taught me how to dream big. I pondered the times in my life when she moved in and became part of my everyday life. She would come and go as we moved from state to state or home to home. I have spent several hours searching for answers to those times when we did not see eye to eye and wonder why. I don't know that I have all of the answers about our relationship, but my eyes have been opened to a different plane of understanding that I need to talk about. Sometimes it amazes me, well all the time it amazes me, how and when personal revelation is received.
May I start off by declaring up front that I know, without doubt, that there is more to existence/life or this mortal experience than just being. I don't claim to understand all the In's and Out's of it, but I know that I have loving parents that care for me both in this mortal frame and in my spiritual soul/spirit. Life with both of them is patterned along the same similar foundations. It took two of them, Mother and Father, male and female, to create the existence I have.
Their desires for me, their offspring, are similar in fashion as well. They can see in me potential, ability, and talent that I have not always recognized. They are willing to do everything in their power and ability to help me reach the maximum in all those areas. Yet, they know that they cannot do it for me. They understand, though it is often difficult to watch, that I must learn to recognize the attributes for myself. I must find the desire within to reach, develop, or obtain them. This is part of the foundation - it is called agency. I have been blessed to have two sets of parents that have patterned their lives upon the same foundations. Not all of us are as fortunate, though raise upon these founding principles prior to this mortal life, some parents within this experience have not chosen to fashion their lives upon the same foundation. They have exercised their agency differently.
My Aunt was born under similar circumstances as mine. Yet, our experiences are individual. She was born into a small frame. At the age of 13 she was diagnosed with the life changing condition of diabetes. She grew up in a different city and house, with different siblings, associates, and challenges. We were married within 6 months of each other. Each of us was blessed with our first child within the same year. By that time she had already experienced her first double transplant. Over the course of our lives, I was blessed with three more children, she was blessed with two more kidneys and a pancreas. I lost an eye, she lost several toes. This past week, she moved from this life to the next. For whatever reason, I continue on.
So, what does this have to do with anything?
Let me see if I can share what I understand. I believe that our first parents had watched us grow. They shared with us their observations and beliefs of what we could become. Though they knew this potential to be true, they knew that for us to know and accept the same truth, we would have to endure an existence outside of their presence, but within their influence, if we chose to accept it.
Neither my Aunt or I fully knew or understood what this existence would require, but we chose to exercise our agency and fall from the presence of our first parents that we might know and learn for ourselves as they did.
We did not always get to chose the experiences we would endure, but we have always had the the choice of how we would act when placed in the experience. As I have reflected upon the experience and example of my Aunt's mortality, I am grateful for what she has taught me.
Though not fun or easy, adhering to the founding principles our first parents have given us, makes the burdens of this experience lighter.
We always have a choice.
Family is always worth fighting for.
Always look for the good in other.
Flowers make the world brighter.
The Atonement is real.
Change is not easy, but possible.
The possible requires action, commitment, pain, love, desire, faith, will, belief, heart, and soul, but it is worth it.
This is part of what I believe. Thanks for letting me ramble. Hope you found some value to it. Until my mind starts overflowing again.
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