Time Experience Thoughts

The Things of Mom On the occasion of her moving out of her home, and giving up and giving away the stuff of her life’s accumulations Things   Whether “dust collector,” simply useful, or family treasure. . .     Impossible to measure. Memories   Regrets? (“Too few to mention.”) Overcome and offset     By a thousand beautiful memories . . . impossible to forget. Reach   An Eternal chain of new “Dollybabes” are the results of her instinctive divine maternal impulses. . .     Impossible to number. Her Soul   The depth and breadth of the tears she wept     on behalf of loved ones here grieved   Echo in the eternal realm and are felt     by dear ones who long before us have left    This frail existence, but who now know where they are what we must here accept     to appreciate thereby the heights with them later to be received.       Her joys and glories and ...

By Scott L Vanatter Poem written August 8, 2011 about my friend Terry Tenove (1954-1978) Still, I think of him -- and often.   (Happily and with affinity.) Sometimes, still, my heart aches then is softened   (Subtly, I see.) His time with us, though shortened, still is not forgotten.   (Not by me.) What he could have created here, is foregone.   (But one day still may be.) Who he was here, doesn’t alone determine who he shall one day become.   (Eternally.) Smiling inside, I know he’s happy even now.   (And free.) In our future reunion all will be compensated, corrected, and perfected.   (Boldly.) No longer in our time, he is forever in God’s.   (Nobly. Still, Terry.)  

Permanent Things: Toward an Understanding of Mormons Editorial from the Newsroom at LDS.org. Religion in America is in a state of flux. The 2008   American Religious Identification Survey   shows that the number of those who claim no religious affiliation nearly doubled from 8.2 percent in 1990 to 15 percent in 2008. In addition, Pew’s 2009   Faith in Flux   survey found that “about half of American adults have changed religious affiliation at least once during their lives.” A study published in 2010 entitled   American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us   maintains that in America “it seems perfectly natural to refer to one’s religion as a ‘preference’ instead of as a fixed characteristic.” CAPTION © 2011 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved In this shifting religious environment it is easy to talk of the fleeting and superficial rather than the deeper foundations of spiritual life. Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day S...

So many Generations have seen these very days of yours, Where each eternal moment reveals His divine ways and course. And now, the New Life being brought forth by you both, Creates, in us all, renewed hope of our own rebirth and growth. We see the two of you – as one – and now three,* Are already bound together , in one, eternally. And this New Little One, sent forth by those from above, Will bring new ways to see . . . new ways to be . . . and new ways for us to love. Eternity has just reached down and touched your inmost soul, As this new Generation even now rejoices and further completes the whole. Scott L. Vanatter, mid-October 2002 (Poem written in anticipation of Ryan’s upcoming birth.) * This poem still works, even though they are now more than just three.

I framed this prints of the Washington DC Temple. (Just to the left of my desk, behind me.)