Oh, My, Goodness. It
is so easy to look down. It is so easy
to feel the weight of my “burdens” and sag beneath the load that is mine. It does me much good to get a little
perspective now and then – that's why I love to read.
In the
hormonal maelstrom of the early postpartum weeks, missing my
newly-returned-to-Alaska husband, trying to balance the needs and demands of my
now two children, and struggling with guilt and resentment at my somewhat
incapacitated state of recovery and the service that required others to give, I
found myself definitely looking down.
And then I
had a few moments when both girls were asleep, and I was able to get
online. I checked emails and facebook,
of course, and did a few more things before heading over for the first time in
a few months to one of my favorite blogs.
I’ve been randomly following The Blessing of Verity for over a year now,
and the chronicles that Susanna Musser has kept of her family and her own heart
never fail to uplift me. But not in a
high-flown, fancy, head in the clouds way.
Oh, no. This is very much a down to
earth, practical application, day to day life sort of blog.
Anyway,
here is this mother of eleven, simultaneously expecting an twelfth baby and
thirteenth child (older, with extreme special needs) by adoption, homeschooling
and raising her children to love and serve one another, already dealing with
the special needs of her youngest daughter, born with Down syndrome, and
another daughter, adopted not that long ago, who also has Down syndrome as well
as special needs resulting from her life pre-adoption. Whew.
It wears me out just to type all that!
Yet she exudes a spirit of faith, love, determination, and worship. I know that what is communicated through a
blog is just a snippet of life, a little window through a wall, but when those
snippets add up to a consistent whole, when each little window shows a slightly
different, but very congruent, piece of a picture, I take it as a good sign
that it's a true picture. Besides, it’s
just too much work to be fictional, or dishonest, on your blog when you have so
much else to do! J
She’s an
inspiration to me. She reminds me of
where my focus ought to be. She helps me
feel new gratitude for my blessings, my challenges, and my Savior. She shows me how to live with grace, and in
reading her words, I find that much needed perspective on my own life. She helps me to remember, as President Monson
is quoted to have said, to “look
up! It is better to look up than to look
down!”
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