A Serious One

I feel compelled to write on a more serious note today for a number of reasons. First, I use this blog to communicate goings on with family and friends, but I also write as sort of a penance for not keeping up with my journal writing. I want my children to have something to read of their mother and father when they are grown, but I am horrible at writing in my journal. So much that I don't even attempt it because I don't know where to begin. I didn't write anything of the first two years of my marriage to Matt and I don't know how long before that either. How do you catch up on years and years of events?

So today, I write on the passing of the Prophet of my church, Gordon B. Hinckley. It is amazing to me how heartbreaking the loss of someone I didn't even know has been. I welled up with tears the moment I heard, but was comforted by the sweet reunion he must have had with his lifelong sweetheart. Today, his funeral was broadcast on television and I cried all over again. What a self-less, kind, and loving individual. Perhaps my grief was heightened in that I was reminded of my own grandmother's funeral. She was the most self-less person that I have ever personally met and I missed her all over again. I remembered how devestating it was for us when they closed the casket and how my heart broke again. As I listed to the speakers and the choir singing, I remembered the kind words that my father spoke at Grandma's funeral service. I assume they asked him to speak because they knew that genetically he was the least likely to cry uncontrollably during his talk. But even this strong man, whom I had never seen cry before, became tearful as he spoke of the kindness of this woman. He concluded by saying that she has always treated him as a son, not a son-in-law, and whenever he left from a visit, she would hug him and cry because she would genuinely miss him. And he said, "Now we are crying as we say good-bye because we genuinely miss her." And we do.
I am grateful for the faith that I have and the hope that our family will be reunited again soon enough. And I am grateful for Gordon B. Hinckley and all that he has done in the service of his people. (And I complain when I have to go out with the missionaries on occasion!)

I was impressed too with a note that one of his grandson's left for him:
We will
Be grateful.
Be smart.
Be clean.
Be true.
Be humble.
Be prayerful.
Be-cause we love you.

And another quote that I should live by more fully:
"Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he has been robbed. The fact is that most putts don’t drop, most beef is tough, most children grow up to be just like people, most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration, and most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. Life is just like an old time rail journey ... delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride."