Category: Family

Relationships, children, and the dynamics between family members.

Can We Be Prepared?

Jeanne Leave a comment

Can we be prepared for famine, floods, fires and other forces that test our grain?
Violence, greed, pollution, dishonesty, and pornography all try our heart & brain.
Can we prepare for disaster, like our FATHER’S awesome fire?
When high winds carry infernal flames through our homes we much desire?

Can preparation help all these disasters that come in different ways?
Only our testimony of JESUS CHRIST, helps us through our darkest days.
We can learn from the HOLY GHOST, how to choose our safest path.
Only through our LORD’S true church can we grow strong through heaven’s wrath.

When we’ve felt the flames of wrath and lost all that we own,
Our hearts are stretched beyond ourselves, as we lose house or home.
Our tears flow more free for others grief; we see through deeper eyes
The heart-torn pain of strangers caught in devastation’s cries.

Disasters come in many forms: tsunamis roar, to lightning storms,
Volcanoes erupt, freezing rain, famine’s starvation, to war’s dark pain.
Please, LORD, help us to have eyes to truly see
The suffering of all caught in these last days tragedys.*

Remember, every trial we face is here to help us grow.
From war we learn the true joy in peace, from hate, we see love’s glow.
From the loss of precious loved ones, we can learn true empathy.
For others caught in sorrows song, our LORD’S charity gives us clarity.

We thank Thee LORD, for sorrow; it helps us past our pain.
We thank Thee, LORD, for heartache; it gives us deeper grain.
We thank Thee LORD, for clarity to see, taste, touch and feel,
That when trials pour upon us, we can serve, help and heal.

As oceans over jump their bound and armored insects roar,
On air fields and on freeways, we see men’s faces soar.
As jets and choppers shoot fire down at souls on land and sea,
We see the faces of those souls in the armored dragons of insanity.**

As earthquakes in diverse places increase, as heart attacks do grow,***
We hear John’s revelations play upon our heart, mind and soul.
May we remember JESUS CHRIST, and pray each dawn through eve,
And be prepared through these troubled last days; May we give love and receive.****

* Matthew 5:44
** Revelations chapter 9
*** Matthew 24:6-8
**** Luke 10: 30-37

The devastation of the camp fire in Paradise, California, has been foremost in our minds lately. I’m sure it has to do with our family, who were evacuated, and then learned of the total destruction of home and property. We live in a world full of pain and suffering, but we cannot allow this to immobilize us and to take away our hope. May God strengthen us to be His hands.

http://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2009-05-22-o-remember-remember?lang=eng&_r=1

This world is full of Problems

Jeanne 1 Comment

This world is full of problems;
On that, we can agree.
The answer’s very plain to me.
I have a remedy:
Be generous with a kind word.
Let compliments be heard.
A hug can say, “You’re thought of!”
And patience speaks of love.
Do try to go the extra mile.
Show kindness with a smile.
Let someone talk and really hear,
Just give a listening ear.

The thing that I am thinking of–
is CHANGE THE WORLD WITH LOVE.

http://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2012-06-2150-love-your-neighbor?category=topics/criticism&lang=eng

Icebergs

Jeanne Leave a comment

How much do we really know about anyone else? We just see what that person allows us to see, or feel comfortable revealing. There is so much beneath the surface.

Each soul is like an iceberg that flows upon life’s sea.
We see the tip and think we know just who that might be.
But like earth’s flowing icebergs, the part we see is small,
Compared to the immensity that’s hidden beneath us all.

Within every person are parts we do not see.
They hold uncounted feelings within both you and me.
Few ever see these hidden things of each soul,
But they are real within us, and determine how we grow.

Each soul needs a true friend to know how they really feel;
To have someone who really cares is something that can heal.
An ear to hear, an eye to see, a heart to understand,
Can melt the coldest heartaches within each woman or man.

We each need loving friends to help us through our day,
To try to understand us and our deeper ways,
To care enough to listen to all our troubled thoughts,
We all need the warmth of God’s pure Son within God’s melting pot.


http:///www.lds.org/media-library/video/2015-06-015-dominoes?category=social-media-shareable-videos&lang=eng

Stopped in Time

Jeanne Leave a comment

Here’s another poem about time and nature, and is appropriate right now because we’ve been spending time in our tent trailer in Wyoming, drinking in the scenery, the quiet, the wildlife, and especially the lack of schedule.

Whenever life stops us in our flow,
Or we chance to travel slow,
As we’re given time to look and be,
We strive to understand God’s wondrous eternity.

Whenever we stand still among life’s hurried throng,
We watch all life about us, and listen to their song:
Now is the time to grow, here is the place.
Within this test of life, we all need some quiet space…within the human race.

Within each momentary pause, we find upon this planet,
We strive to warm our heart, from hardned icy granite.
There are deeper meanings, that feed our troubled soul,
With humble meditation on God’s truth, we can grow.

We can find peace in a mountain, or while driving down a road,
Or clouds can lift one’s eyes, worried by a heavy load,
Or what about a river’s song, as it goes flowing by,
Or in each young child’s freedom, as they play beneath the sky?

For speed and power are empty goals.
They leave a hole within our souls,
Where love, truth and gratitude
Can keep a soul from being rude

And set us truly free to forever grow.

The link below notices that the more we see things, the less we see them….

http://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2010-11-23-thanksgiving-daily?category=mormon-messages/mormon-messages-2010&lang=eng

On Restoring an Old Photograph

Jeanne Leave a comment

I’ve been thinking of how quickly time slips away, leaving us surprised that our children are no longer babies, and, in fact, have babies of their own! This poem was written by my Aunt, Sherrel Burgoyne:

An old photo
lovingly folded in a apron pocket
cared for too much
looked at too often

until the creases of love
became cracks
and try as I tried
I cannot restore

child of joy
splashing in water and sun
I want to believe
every day on this earth was happy
every dream that you dreamed came true
laughter and love followed your life

where did you go
did you slip into one of the cracks?

http://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2011-06-012-moments-that-matter-most?category=topics/family&lang=eng

Let Go

Jeanne 1 Comment

Several events over the last week have led me to the thought of “Letting go.” A friend of mine was blind-sided with the death of her husband, who is younger than me. As I put myself in her place, I realized how fortunate I am to have the companionship of a husband, even if it’s just sitting side by side watching tv. Think about it: How often during the day do you rely upon interaction with your spouse? Just knowing someone is there is priceless. It must be really difficult to let go of that season in your life.

On a note (not quite so somber as the last)…my grandchildren. Before they moved out of state, lived roughly a mile from our home. In 5 minutes, I could be there. In many ways, they depended on that. I drove them to school. They came by the house after school and I drove them home; sometimes stopping a McDonald’s if they hated school lunch that day. They were a big part of my time and life. And then they moved. 3 l/2 hours away. It left a hole that I still struggle to stop tripping over; and that hole was really big last week when they started school…a new school. I wanted so badly to be there and do whatever Grandmas do to make things better, or, at least to think you’ve made things better. It’s painful. I worried. I prayed. I fasted. I worried, and then I worried again. Then they got sick, and some had to miss school. I realized that I had to ‘let go’, just like I did before when they left.

I remember those days. I’d sit in the car and play the Mormon Tabernacle Choir verse of ‘How Firm a Foundation’…feeling the words: “Fear not, I am with thee, Oh, be not dismayed, for I am thy God and will still give thee aid. I’ll strengthen thee, help thee and cause thee to stand….” I’d play it loud and could almost imagine heavenly help descending upon me, not just from God, but from dear ones now departed who also cared deeply.

I have often confused control with security. Let go. Let go.

The frosty autumn nights
Bid the tree (glorious and alive)
Let go their precious golden leaves
That in days past, bid them survive.

In spring, the fledgling bird will grow
Now the mother tries her best
To prod it from the nest.
Let go.

We hold our babies close,
And treasure every show.
They now seek new horizons,
And we painfully,
Let go.

Our beloved ones, we cherish
And the winds of age do blow
Now they pass thru death’s door,
As our hearts are broken,
And we let go.

But hearts are healed
When we come to know,
A loving Father,
Will never
Let go.

This short video below helps me to let go. It helps me to trade fear for faith, and helps me remember that, even though I will be required to let go, I can be confident that God will never let go of me.

http://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2017-01-0004-live-by-faith-not-by-fear?category=social-media-shareable-videos&lang=eng


Alaska!

Jeanne 1 Comment

I’m finally getting around to putting together a scrapbook of our cruise to Alaska last month. On the cruise, Bob would get up early, as he always does, and go up to where he could watch the water and coastline. Here he would pen a poem for each day, and I have included the verses that deal with our fjord cruising of the Sawyer Glacier just south of Juneau. The views were 100% gorgeous, as you will see in the photos below.

As we take the inside passage
We watch life in every move.
Then on we sail up the fjords
Within the glacier’s ancient groove.

We arrive in eyesight of the glacier
Where ice has blocked our way,
So our captain takes us west to
A narrow fjord today.

We sail to the glacier’s western arm up this narrow pass,
The captain stops the ship near, as we look and gasp!!
Then turned that giant ship around
Smooth and slow as another hour passed.


Pioneer Day

Jeanne Leave a comment

Yesterday in church our kids enacted a 30-minute pioneer trek, complete with covered wagon, bonnets, neckerchiefs,taffy, horehound, berries, buffalo chips, homemade butter and rolls, and a snake. My mind did wander back to my great grandmother, Sara Jane Richards Perkins, who left wales as a young woman, leaving family and friends, and ending up here in Magna, or Pleasant Green, as it was called then. Our lives are built upon the hard work of those ambitious faithful people. And so, as we celebrate pioneer day (July 24, 1847 being the day they entered the Salt Lake Valley), I will be grateful for, running water, shelter, food, shade, health care, comfortable shoes, beds and toilets.

http://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2016-12-01-pioneer-journeys-more-than-a-trek?lang=eng

To Bob, My Husband

Jeanne 1 Comment

The name of this poem is really, “To Jeanne, My Wife”, but I selected it for today and re-directed the message to husbands, since Father’s Day was yesterday, and, perhaps we are still thinking of fathers:

Love is a flower that grows from a seed,
One feeds love with kindness in each little deed.
When trials confront us, together we stand,
Love grows to oneness, heart to heart, hand in hand.
When two stand together, they’re stronger than one.
Like two blooming flowers that thrive in the sun.
Soon buds gather ’round them, together to grow,
A family eternal in life’s living show.
My dearest, I love you more every day,
With each passing moment, words seldom say,
For feelings grow past words in so many ways.
You are my best friend, forever, today.

www.lds.org/media-library/video/2013-01-002-earthly-father-heavenly-father?cid=HP_WE-13-6-2018_dPTH_fMLIB_xLIDyL1-C_&lang=eng

The whale tale

Jeanne 1 Comment

So, just returned from an Alaskan cruise. It was all so fabulous. This earth is an amazingly beautiful place with more wonders than anyone could possibly take in in a life time! Out of all the wonders we encountered, I wrote this ode to the one that excited me the most:

Sweet was the time,
The scenery sublime,
But nothing delighted
So much as we sighted
From the small boat, a WHALE,
Who twice dove, and showed us a tail!

http://www.mormon.org/blog/3-reasons-to-spend-time-in-nature