What Laura and Mary Found
Nearly every night after I tuck my children in bed and turn out their lights I sit in the hallway between their bedrooms and read to them. In this way they have been introduced to Narnia, Winnie the Pooh, Heidi, Lord Fauntleroy and Mary Lennox. We’ve read collections of fairy tales, flown to Neverland with Peter Pan and giggled at the cures produced by Mrs. Pigglewiggle. Now we are reading the Little House on the Prairie series.
Not long ago we read how Pa took Laura and Mary to a deserted Indian camp near their home. As they explored the hollow where the Indians once lived, Laura discovered a bright blue bead glittering in the dust. Soon Mary found a red one and the hunt was on for beads in the dust. Pa helped them look for them until it was time to go home. When the sun began to sink towards the prairie horizon each little girl had a handful of beads that Pa tied up in a corner of his handkerchief.
Finding What Was There All Along
There is beauty all around us. Sometimes it catches us by surprise such as when we step outside to turn on the sprinklers and discover a brilliant sunset. Sometimes we go on purpose to see beauty spread all around us from a mountaintop. But usually, if we want to see beauty every day, we must have eyes to see it glittering in the dust.
This is an area where we can learn from our little children, who are more adept at seeing beauty all around them. They find it in the rocks that they tuck in their pockets. They see it in the faces of people. They find it in fields of dandelions.
This summer dandelions spread across the fields around our home like spilled sunshine. They glowed in contrast to the gray skies. My children, especially my girls, have all loved dandelions. My oldest daughter spent hours in the pasture picking bouquets of yellow blooms for me. As she got older she discovered how the stems would curl up when dipped in the cold water of the stream. She made bracelets, necklaces and crowns out of the dandelions. Her clothes were stained with dandelion glue and streaks of yellow dusted her little face. What to me was a bane, to her was a gift, a beautiful gift of nature. If it wasn’t for my little ones, and opening my heart to childlike wonder, I might never see beauty in the ordinary.
Another way to discover the beauty that is already part of our lives is simply living with gratitude. “Our realization of what is most important in life goes hand in hand with gratitude for our blessings . . . The ancient Roman philosopher Horace admonished, “Whatever hour God has blessed you with, take it with grateful hand, nor postpone your joys from year to year, so that in whatever place you have been you may say that you have lived happily (Thomas S. Monson, Joy in the Journey, General Conference, October 2008).” Living happily is inextricably connected to gratitude. Seeing the beauty of our own lives is easier when we write it down. Taking just a few minutes at the end of the day to document things to be grateful for is like finding beads already in your hand.
Hunting for Beautiful Memories
Once Laura Ingalls discovered that first bead in the dust the hunt was on for more. Hunting for something takes patience and effort. We don’t find what we desire by standing still or walking away. Sometimes beautiful experiences can only be found through effort. President Thomas S. Monson reminds us that “we should make the most of today, of the here and now, doing all we can to provide pleasant memories for the future (Finding Joy in the Journey, General Conference, October 2008).” Making the most of today sometimes means stepping away from our everyday work, everyday demands and doing something out of the ordinary. Every time I do I discover that my life is more beautiful and rich, my relationships are sweeter.
A couple weeks ago I decided to take the children on a picnic. It was a beautiful day, one of the first after weeks and weeks of gray skies and rain. I decided to take them to a place not far from our home on the banks of what is usually a dry creek. When we got there we found the creek roaring with all the runoff from the mountains. Small tributaries ran quietly nearby with bridges spanning the water. After eating some lunch we sat on one of the bridges and dipped our feet in the water. Little Emma picked dandelions and sent them spinning down the stream. Sarah and Camilla wove rafts out of grasses to float. Joshua lay on a blanket in the shade, reading a book. McKay and Peter splashed in the water and begged to go out to the islands of stone in the raging creek.
After awhile we decided to explore the path in the willow woods. We passed out of the sunshine into the shade of the willows. Green leafy plants grew alongside the trail. We crossed over swampy areas balancing on logs. We found a shallow place where we could walk out onto stony islands and toss rocks into the water. With eyes accustomed to the shade, on the way back, we discovered little white flowers scattered like stars among the green and flowers like delicate bursts of fireworks that we hadn’t seen before. We packed up and went home happy, full of the beauty of the world around us and the sweetness of having shared it together.
Stringing Beads
Each grateful thought, each pleasant memory we create becomes a bead strung one by one onto the thread of our lives. What at first seemed like a random find becomes a pattern of beauty and light. We discover that what we thought was a drab and ordinary life is one of glittering possibility. Our lives begin to sparkle because we have eyes to see what has always been there.
Kimberli Pelo Robison is a wife and mother to six children. She has a degree in Family and Human Development from Utah State University.
