Time Experience Thoughts

Small, sweet, soft and tender. Delicate, elegant, beautiful and growing. Grand and glorious, in time and eternity. Her gentle voice sounds in our ears Drawing us back to those timeless Holier spheres. She’s right here, resting right there Next to my heart in sacred Silent prayer. Her finely-featured face, in temporal serenity, Splendidly reveals her Eternal identity. Yes, I held her in my hands, gently; And she held my full attention, Intently. Her very soul echoes through our whole being Freeing us to real Seeing. Our yearning matching hers -- with us she shares The secure promise that, together, we Shall be Heirs. ~ By Scott Vanatter, July 7, 2012 (On the birth of Emma Lenore Kearns.)

About eight years prior to the start of the Civil War (and about eight years after Joseph Smith ran for President of the United States with an anti-slavery plank included in his platform), Frederick Douglass, gave an important, prescient, insightful and – in the face of the horrors of slavery – hope-filled Fourth of July speech in Rochester, NY. Please see below excerpts from the speech having to do with the meaning of the Founders and the Fourth of July, and the fact that the principles in the Founding Documents were antithetical to slavery. Enjoy your Fourth of July celebration.  [Emphasis and subheadings added my me.] HOPE AND CONSOLATION THAT AMERICA IS YOUNG [This] is the 4th of July. It is the birthday of your National Independence, and of your political freedom. . . . I am glad, fellow-citizens, that your nation is so young . Seventy-six years, though a good old age for a man, is but a mere speck in the life of a nation. . . . According to this fact, you are, even now, o