Something There Is That Loves a Rock

Something there is that loves a rock
that stands immobile through storms
and persists protectively steady.
My neighbor would move rocks,
piling them like laurels to industry--
his arsenal against time.
Does he think rocks will eat his carrots,
that he must ban all rocks from his garden?
A child knows the safety of a rock,
without instruction, he seeks for his--
a rock to speak comfort to him,
a rock that fits hand and pocket,
a rock he knows as constant
in a world of muddled change.
Peaceful granite hills stand over my valley
where men erect towers to busy-ness,
towers that soon crumble and crack
and must be taken down and built again
so that men can work in synthetic shadow,
scraping synthetic life from synthetic rock,
until time ends and only mountains
go on.

Karla Burkhart

I read an article this morning that got me thinking more about my own pioneer ancestors. I had family in many of the famous stories that you hear about. I read in my family stories about moving, building a house, managing to acquire basic needs and then having to move again and again. I read about family who didn't make it across the plains. I read about a young girl stripping willow bark by the stream for food at the moment the rescue party finally reached them. I read about how she later realized that her husband was actually one of the rescue party. I read how she struggled the rest of her life to walk on feet that had been frozen. I read about people who left the church because of hurt feelings or because of misunderstandings and I wonder if I would have remained faithful under the circumstances. How easy it is in hind sight to condemn people who made wrong choices. How easy it is to let pain and hurt of the moment challenge our testimony. Yet, circumstances are not what makes up a testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel. Early leaders made mistakes but the church was still true. Leaders today make mistakes but the church is still true. I do not know all truth and I make mistakes but I am learning and I am very grateful that I don't have to know it all today. I have an eternity to learn and improve and maybe, with all the help I am able to receive, I will reach the state where I will not make so many daily mistakes. Maybe I will someday be able to grow without the constant steps backward. Whatever the future holds, this I know, the gospel is true, Christ lives, He atoned for the world, and I will make mistakes today.