For most of us, a feast like this with loving family
around, is what our "Thanksgiving" holiday has
become, and for that we should be very, very grateful.
For most of us it has become the expected and more or
less taken for granted.
Last night Iris and I had the opportunity to go to Addison
school concert where he plays the violin in the school
orchestra. We were pleased to be there and Addison
and all the others did a wonderful job. We were happy
we could attend. After the concert at the Willow Valley
School, I heard some one calling my name. I'm new
again in the valley and so I was somewhat surprised.
A young man, came over to me, and said: "You probably
don't know who you are talking to. I could place the face
but my memory, for the moment, could not attach a name
to it. He reminded me that I had taught him more than
20 years ago. I had known him and his family well.
In the course of the conversation he told me where he
lived and what he was doing for a living. I asked him how
his family was doing, and he replied: "We are doing very
well." Then after a little more discussion and inquiry
he told me that he and his wife had had five children.
One had died of some sort of heart condition a few months
after birth, two others, one now in her early teens and
another approaching her teen years were confined to
wheelchairs and had not developed mentally or
or emotionally much past the three or four year old
stage. He told me of the months the had practically lived
at the Primary Children's Hospital trying to get help
for their condition., all to no avail. As we took leave
of one another he again told me. We're doing great and are
very thankful for our experiences and our family.
An Attitude of Gratitude, had made him a happy person,
in spite of his trials.
As I thought back on his life and that of his family I could
see where this Attitude of Gratitude had come from. When
he was but a child, probably in his teens, his father, then a
bishop of his ward, was killed in a tragic accident while
getting some poles from the canyon for use on their dairy
farm. At the time his mother was pregnant with their ninth
child. They were deeply in debt, as many small farmers are,
but they buried their husband and father as their Bear Lake
Valley neighbors rallied around them. They stayed strong
in their faith and active in the Church. All nine of those children
went through my classes at school over the years. They always
did their best and never failed to say thanks for any help they
received. All of the boys and some of the girls served mission
and went on to get higher education. They have all been
married in the temple and have wonderful families of their own.
They have learned, as we all should, what is important in the
eternal scheme of things. After their mother raised the family
on the farm, with all of them pulling together, their mother
remarried and moved out of the valley. Before she left she
wrote a letter and had it published in the News-Examiner, the
Bear Lake Valley newspaper, expressing her gratitude to all
who had stood by her and her family during her trials. I never
heard her or any of her kids complain. It kind of reminds me of
the words of Randy Pausch in his famous Last Lecture: "We
can't always control the cards we are dealt, but we can control
the way we play them." It's up to us. Every cloud has a silver
lining, and every sunny day its shadows. We can emphasize
the clouds or the shadows if we choose, but if we choose to see
the beauties and opportunities and help other do the same,
we will meet the measure of our creation. "Things are going
great." and we will have "Joy". Let us all seek to develop an
ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE.
I am grateful for all of you, for your abilities and for your
challenges. They can and should make us better people.
I Love all of you and hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving
Season.
Dad
