trail!

I was getting my things ready to go the temple and had my dress laying out on the bed. Kaden asked, "what's that?" I told him it was my temple dress. Then he said, "you getting married?" I told him I was already married to daddy, and that I wore that dress inside the temple. He said, "you wear diffent dress." I said I would wear a different one to the temple, and then change once we got inside. A few minutes later, Kaden asked, "daddy pick you up?" Me: uhh, yes, daddy will take me to the temple. Then, thinking how he had asked me if I was going to get married at the temple, I asked him, "Do you mean is Daddy going to pick me up like Travis did with Camille?" And he said, "yes, like mille travis!"

Last night Tyler and I went to the temple as part of our Stake Excursion. The Stake President and the 1st counselor in the temple presidency spoke before the session. I really liked what the counselor said. (don't quote me) He was telling us that he used to be a scout master in his younger years and that every summer he would take the young men on a hike in the Olypmic Mountains. He would always be in front to set the pace. When they first started hiking, they were all excited; talking, laughing, and really enjoying themselves. Then, reality started to set in and they got quiet, looking down at the dust and rocks as they walked. When the scout master thought they needed a break, he would call out, "trail!" and the boys would collapse onto the sides of the trail and rest. One boy asked him once, "why don't you sit down and rest?" He replied, "I don't need to; I am really enjoying myself out here!" So they kept walking, the trail would get steeper, and the boys would really start getting sober. They were all still looking down at the dust and the rocks. One young man asked him, "why don't you look down where you are walking?" He replied, "Because I like to look at the wildflowers, the mountains, and the beautiful creations." He calls "trail!" again and the boys sit down on the trail and the scoutmaster tells them, "You know, if you started looking around as you are walking, you would really start to enjoy this hike a little more." So they listened to him, and they started noticing all these beautiful things. Once they got to the top of the mountain, they were so happy, excited, and glad that they had made it.

So then he applied this to our lives - We are the young men, hiking along. No doubt we were so excited to start off our journey here before we arrived on this earth!! If we feel like we are having a hard time, then we are looking down at the 'rocks' and 'dust' along the way. Raise our sight, our vision, to something higher. Our 'trail' is the temple. It is where we go when we need a break, a breather from this dusty, rocky world. The place we go to restore our energy to go back out into the world. And President Hinckley is in front, leading the way and setting the pace. (can we keep up?)

I don't know why, but this really had an impact on me. On the way home I was still thinking about it. I remembered how I felt Friday morning. The boys woke up at their usual time, 7:30, and I was just out-of-sorts somehow. I just had this daunting thought go through my head, "I do the same thing, every day." Feed the kids, clean up the kids, clean the house, have some 'me' and study time, fix dinner, etc etc etc. It was just so depressing...so I'm not surprised to report that yesterday d-r-a-g-g-e-d by.

When I was listening to him talk, and thinking about it afterwards, I realized that I had been looking at the 'dust' and the 'rocks'. Not looking around, seeing how good, and beautiful my life really is, even with the dust and the rocks at my feet.