Growing Heartwood (part 2)

The first principle in getting through adversity is drawing on the internalized strength gained from past influences, experiences and experiments.

From influences are born experiments and experiences.  We take an idea from a parent, friend or book and experiment upon it. 

Thus having heard seeds grow if planted and watered you attempt the experiment.  The seed goes in the ground and is watered.  Days pass and soon you have the experience of seeing a little green seedling rise above the earth and grow steadily upward. 

These experiments and experiences grow heartwood.  When adversity strikes this heartwood is there to help you stand tall in the icy storm.

“You cannot help but learn more,” John Updike tells us, “as you take the world into your hands.  Take it up reverently, for it is an old piece of clay, with millions of thumbprints on it.”

We learn from all experiences, even the ones that don’t turn out as we would wish.

 “A man who carries a cat by the tail,” Mark Twain adds, “learns something he can learn in no other way.”

 “...and above all,” the Lord promises, speaking to the jailed Joseph Smith, “ if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.”

Growing Heartwood

What if past influences have been negative? Past experiences harsh and corrosive?  Past experiments humongous failures? What of heartwood then? 

"Rather than dwelling on the past," Pres. Thomas S. Monson tells us, "we should make the most of today, of the here and now, doing all we can to provide pleasant memories for the future."

In other words—start growing heartwood now.

·        Learn from your ancestors—they weren’t all bad.  Learn from your parents—invert the negative example they left you and you find a positive. 

·        Learn for a pet (if you don’t have a pet learn from friend’s pets). 

·        Get a library card.  Get a librarian’s advice on children’s classics...why children’s classics rather than adults?  Books written for children retain a sense of wonder, imagination, liveliness and uplifting humour that adult classics have lost.

·        Try a new experience or a new experiment.  Start small.  It could be as simple as changing your daily routine, listening to an audio book as you drive to work or taking a walk in the beautiful outdoors.

Soon you will have a core of inner strength, or memories, to draw upon in adverse times.

Heartwood and our Hero in the Swamp

Our hero was alone after his companion ditched him for home.  Alone, incapacitated by a sore knee, surrounded by muddy water and potential alligators.  Looking back at his heartwood—memories stored in his heart and mind—our hero remembered the challenges he had already met on this journey to Memphis.  He had faced down bears and wolves, dug a canoe from a fallen tree, and relied on the kindness of strangers and enemies alike. 

He remembered what had kept him here in the alligator swamp instead of giving up and going home like his companion.  It was the vision, the sense of mission that lay like a fire in his heart, which kept him heading to Memphis.

Next Up: Finding you Life’s Work, Nourishing the Vision

Growing Heartwood (part 1)



Aldermere Trail, Telkwa, BC



The first principle in getting through adversity is drawing on the internalized strength gained from past influences, experiences and experiments.

I love walking in the woods.   My path lies over rich dirt and pine needles, fallen leaves and tree roots.  Vibrant green ferns, wildflowers, mosses and prickle bushes line the dirt path.  And everywhere are the alder, pine and spruce—firmly rooted in the woodland soil they stand tall and straight and reach for the sunlight above them. 

It is peaceful among the trees in the wood.  It is stilling to listen to the silent but rich growth going on all around me.  Sometimes the stillness is complemented by birdsong or the industrious tap-tap of a woodpecker.  Always the majestic trees stand where they are planted...

I am reminded of lines from William Cullen Bryant’s “A Forest Hymn”:

“Be it ours to meditate

In these calm shades thy milder majesty,

And to the beautiful order of thy works

Learn to conform the order of our lives.”

You’ll notice if you walk through the woods that some trees are slim young things, supple and fresh-looking, while others are ancient grandfathers dripping with ‘old man’s beard’.  At the core of each of these trees—beneath the bark, beneath the sapwood—lies the heartwood.

The heartwood was once alive but as time passed a new living layer formed leaving the dead layer behind.  Dead but not useless--for it gives the tree its breadth;  it might be called the spine of the tree keeping it straight and tall. 

We too—as “trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord”—have heartwood.  The influences we experienced in the past have made us what we are today.  This is core strength to draw upon when adversity strikes.

Here is a selection of influences that create heartwood:

Ancestors

“Search out your heritage," Pres. Thomas S. Monson urged. “It is important to know, as far as possible, those who came before us. We discover something about ourselves when we learn about our ancestors.”

The stories of my ancestors have served as a source of inspiration and  motivation in my life—teaching me about the power of compassion, courage, integrity, faith, prayer, writing, work, love, kindness...

Parents and other Mentors

“Each day of our lives,” Charles R. Swindoll says, “we make deposits in the memory banks of our children.”

Usually banked in the child’s mind are lessons learned in the home—team-work, co-operation, kindness, discipline, moral principles and life-skills. All these form heartwood.

Books

I find I absorb the implicit worldview of the characters in books I read. As Charles Kinsley reminds us so vividly:

“Except a living man there is nothing more wonderful than a book!  A message to us from…human souls we never saw…And yet these arouse us, terrify us, teach us, comfort us, open their hearts to us as brothers.”

Pets

“Until one has loved an animal,” Anatole France says, “a part of one's soul remains unawakened."

There is much we can learn from animals including friendship, unconditional love, cheerfulness, hard work and energetic play. 

Next up--Growing Heartwood (part 2)

Traversing the Alligator Swamp: Principles in Moving Through Adversity

Once upon a time two young men were travelling to Memphis.  (This was way before Elvis’ time—in the early 1830s).  They travelled on an old military road that quickly passed through swampland.  Soon the two young men were walking in muddy water up to their knees. 

During the first 10 miles they slogged through the swamp they caught glimpses of alligators.  This was unnerving.  At least one of the companions thought it was.

“I can’t take it anymore!” he said, as they stopped to rest on a fallen log.  “I’m tired and wet and hungry.  The last few months I’ve been more hungery and cold then in my whole life.  I've been threatened by bears and wolves...and now this.  I’m going home!”

And he did, leaving our hero by himself--Wilford Woodruff by name--in the middle of an alligator swamp.  A sharp pain in his knee prevented the young man from continuing his journey.

Wet, dirty, cold, tired, hungry, alone, physically incapacitated ,with the threat of alligators lurking in the muddy water—this, I think, could be considered adverse circumstances.

So what did the young man do?  What would you do in this situation?  I would have gone home I think—but our hero did not…

“I knelt down in the mud and prayed,” he later reported, “and the Lord healed me, and I went on my way rejoicing….walking forty miles in a day through mud and water knee-deep.” (from the digitized book Leaves from my Journal--signed by the author!)

When the road of life takes us through the swampland of adversity we have two options—give up or continue on.  Our hero continued on—how?

Principles to get through the Alligator Swamp

(with problems posed in parentheses)

• Strength from Past Experiences (What if past experiences weren't strengthening?)
• Sense of Vision and Purpose in the Journey (Lost mine--now what)
• Seek Divine Aid with Faith (Got none--do I?)
• Seek Divine Aid through Prayer (I think I've been forwarded to voice mail...)
• Wallking Out (But I want to run!)
• Rejoicing as you Endure (Is that as 'pollyanna' as it sounds?)

So those are the general principles. We’ll examine each principle (and problems posed) in depth with subsequent posts. And we’ll see if our young hero lived “happily ever after”.

Living Gratitude: the Sum of the Matter (Part 4)

“To live gratitude is to touch Heaven,” Johannes A. Gaertner asserts (as does Pres. Monson). 

The grateful heart is the grace-filled heart.  Cultivating gratitude, is much like priming an old pump—it takes work but eventually the waters come rushing out (a little rusty tasting at the start perhaps).

Gratitude awakens our senses to the health and happiness we already posses (even if both are not the desired ‘full measure').  Gratitude opens our hearts to the love God has for us, and the wonders that surround us in the ordinary. Gratitude serves to magnify and enrich our blessings, our spirits and our relationship with others.

“Hem your blessings with thankfulness,” the saying goes, "so they don't unravel.”

Heart-felt words of thanksgiving are characteristics of divinity.  So often during his mortal and post-mortal ministries the Lord gratefully acknowledged: “Father, I thank thee…” (Luke 10:21, John 11:41, 3 Nephi 19:20, 3 Nephi 19:28)

As a characteristic of deity, gratitude is to be mirrored in his children.  Is it easy to keep the commandment to be thankful?  Is it easy to take life with gratitude rather then for granted? 

No.  Absolutely not!

Heavenly Help and Promise

But our omniscient, loving Father in Heaven knows that and has provided for it.

“Ye cannot bear all things now,” he tenderly told the early Saints, “nevertheless, be of good cheer, for I will lead you along. The kingdom is yours and the blessings thereof are yours, and the riches of eternity are yours.” (D&C 78:18)

Then comes the promise for those who accept the Lord’s leading:

“And he who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious; and the things of this earth shall be added unto him, even an hundred fold, yea, more.” (D&C 78:19)

Creed is Worthless without Conduct

Of course knowing the blessings that can come by pactising gratitude is worthless and meaningless without acting on it.  Knowledge is always so.  Just like the two blades of a pair of scissors...knowing and doing, faith and works...go together. (see Mere Christianity)

"Between the knowing and the doing," Henry van Dyke reminds us, "there is a deep gulf. Into that abyss the happiness of many a man slips, and is lost. There is no peace, no real and lasting felicity for a human life until the gulf is closed, and the continent of conduct meets the continent of creed, edge to edge, lip to lip, firmly joined forever."

“Knowledge is only half of intelligence,” Nels L. Nelson reminds us in his magnificent Scientific Aspects of Mormonism. “To stop here is to be falsely educated.

“If, however, the truth perceived becomes a dynamic fact in a man's character...if, in short, it ceases to be something in a man, and becomes the man himself, changing the very color and texture of his soul, then knowledge has passed over into power — or character—or wisdom—or, to adopt the term used by Joseph Smith, has passed over into intelligence; and it is such a process alone that represents true education.”

One Way to Live Gratitude

So let’s say we decide gratitude is a blessing and strive to cultivated it...how does that look?  How do live it?

“One way of expressing gratitude,” Richard L. Evans tells us, “would be to use well what we have—material things, talents, time, opportunities, sympathy, compassion.”

And that is the sum of this facet of glory.

Gratitude: Power to re-awaken Wonder (Part 3)

We can only be said to be alive,” Thornton Wilder says, “in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.”

So often in life we take our treasures for granted.  Possibly because through constant contact the novelty wears off and they become ordinary.  I remember when my parents first got chickens how excited my brothers were to collect the eggs.  For the first week.

Our treasures so often fade into the woodwork and we don’t see them anymore.  And so we go looking for more…and more…and more…and wonder why they quickly disappear once we have them in our grasp.

How do we re-awaken to wonder?  How do we re-awaken to the treasures we already have? The answer is one you probably have heard many times.  It is a common answer because it commonly works when applied--but is, sadly, commonly not used.

Gratitude helps us remember that the ordinary, somewhat mundane things around us, are treasures.  Instead of following the "stale trick" of taking life for granted, G.K. Chesterton urged his readers a century ago, we should take life as granted…and the only response to a granted life is gratitude.

"By small means are great things brought to pass" is a truism that threads through the ages bringing miracles in its wake.  Young children, "small means" by themselves, are marvelous examples of treasuring and being enthralled by the ordinary.  For to them it is extraordinary—wonders are all around them…

 “A child of seven is excited,” G.K. Chesterton remarked, “by being told that Tommy opened a door and saw a dragon.  But a child of three is excited by being told that Tommy opened a door.” (Orthodoxy)

What other treasures are sources of wonder for little kids?

Boxes for one.  What a marvelous thing a box is!  You can (if it’s large enough) sit in a box, or put stuff in a box, or take stuff out of a box, or squish a box…amazing!

And then there are light switches.  Just by hitting a switch on the wall a darkened room can suddenly be illuminated and you can see everything in it.  Hit the switch again and the room is awash in darkness.  What power!

Through cultivating gratitude we are conscious of the treasure, the grace of ordinary things, people, ideas.  Just like hitting a light switch can illumine a darkened room, gratitude can illuminate the wonder of the ordinary—and we see it in its true light—extraordinary, a freely granted gift, our inheritance upon being born in the world.

What have you inherited? What treasures can you discover in the ordinary?  

Here are some treasures I’ve inherited:

• Gospel in its fullness
• Scriptures printed and in my own language
• Ancestors with great faith, great work-ethic and great hearts
• Song of birds in the early morning
• Sweet perfume of rain-washed lilacs
• Beauty of pines frosted with snow
• Hot water
• A variety of fresh fruit and vegetables
• Electricity
• Plumbing

...and, of course, boxes and light switches.

Gratitude: The Root of Joy (Part 2)

“The root of joy is gratefulness...” Brother David Steindl-Rast asserts. “It is not joy that makes us grateful; it is gratitude that makes us joyful."

Being grateful seems to open the door to more and more blessings!  But what--exactly--does the word mean?  We know what it implies but lets examine the etymology for greater understanding of this enriching virtue.

The etymology suggests:

• Gratitude—‘quality of condition of being grateful’ (Oxford English Dictionary Online)
• Grateful—full of grace (1828 Webster’s; Oxford English Dictionary Online 2010)
• Grace—‘free unmerited love and favor of God’ (1828 Webster’s Dictionary)

…therefore to be grateful is to be full of grace.

Gratitude is a prerequisite to joy, Brother Steindl-Rast says in the quote above. 

Hold that thought and come with me to the Mount over there.  The one with the crowd of people.  The one where the Galilean rabbi is giving a sermon.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness,” the Saviour tells them, “for they shall be filled…”

Filled with what?  Not with food, surely—for they are not hungry and thirsty for physical food (this time round)…

“…filled with the Holy Ghost…” the risen Saviour clarified to the Nephites several years later. 

The Holy Ghost…a comforter, a teacher, a testifier, a grace-giver.  One of the fruits of having the Holy Ghost’s presence in our life is—yes, you guessed it—JOY!

Thus in opening our hearts in gratitude we open them to grace…even the free unmerited love of the Godhead through the Holy Spirit.  And in receiving the Spirit’s grace we also open the door of our heart to a host of other renewing and enlivening virtues…joy among them.

Gratitude: Duty or Blessing? (Part 1)

It seems to me," C.S. Lewis mused, "that we often, almost sulkily, reject the good that God offers us because, at the moment, we expected some other good…God shows us a facet of glory and we refuse to look at it because we are still looking for the old one...” (Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer)

  

The proverbial solution, of course, is to remember the good God has given us—to count our blessings and express gratitude for them.

"When sorrow and failure come to us," William George Jordan reminds us, "we regard them as misdirected packages that should be delivered elsewhere." Counting our blessings at such times can seem an onerous duty rather then a divine gift.  But is expressing gratitude just a duty, one of many commands of God?

“Health and happiness are what our Father in Heaven wants for us,” Harold B. Lee reminds us,  “and that is why He has given us commandments to keep, and not for any other reason.”

And Thomas S. Monson, in his keynote address “The Divine Gift of Gratitude,” assures us: “Sincerely giving thanks not only helps us recognize our blessings, but it also unlocks the doors of heaven and helps us feel God’s love.”

Health and Happiness…feeling God’s Love…what lovely gifts…but how is gratitude a path to them?

M. J. Ryan offers one explanation: “Gratitude creates happiness because it makes us feel full, complete; gratitude is the realization that we have everything we need, at least at the moment.” (Attitudes of Gratitude)

So how do we cultrivate gratitude when those "misdirected" packages arrive in our lives? After all, the post office of heaven does not accept returns.

"A prayerful life ,” Thomas S. Monson assures us, “is the key to possessing gratitude.”

As Shakespeare’s Henry VI implored:

“O Lord, that lends me life,

 Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness!”