Spiritual Thought

We just had a transfer last week. A transfer represents a change in our lives and a journey to another place and time.
We have transfers in our own lives. There's a transfer when we get married. We have transfers in our lives when we finish school and start or finish our occupations.
Some of us will have many more transfers in life. Some of us already had many transfers. It is part of the journey.

This is our last transfer in our mission life. I think about all the things we have been able to do while on this mission. I have had a wonderful journey. Then I think of the things I would like to have done and things that I would have done differently.
We heard at stake conference last week that it isn't the grade at the end of the test that is important. It is the lessons and progress we make on the journey that matters.

In 2. Nephi 2:25 it reads: "Adam fell that men might be and men are that they might have joy."

Thomas S. Monson: Finding Joy in the Journey (2008):
This is our one and only chance at mortal life, here and now. He said that among the greatest lessons we are to learn in this short sojourn upon the earth are lessons that help us distinguish between what is important and what is not.
Thomas S. Monson quoted a famous author: Both abundance and lack of abundance exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend... when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that's present-love, health, family friends, work, the joys of nature, and personal pursuits that bring us happiness the waste land of illusion falls away and we experience heaven on earth.

The ancient Roman philosopher Horace admonished: "Whatever hour God has blessed us with, take it with grateful hand, nor postpone your joys from year to year, so that in whatever place you have been you may say that you have lived happily.

Erma Bombeck wrote an article when she found out she was going to have her last transfer in life because she was dying from cancer. She wrote about things she would have liked to have done and things that she would have done differently:
- I would have talked less and listened more
- I would have cried and laughed less while watching television and more while watching life
- I would have taken the time to listen to my grandfather ramble about his youth
- I would have sat on the lawn with my grass stains
- There would have been more "I love you" and more "I'm sorry"
- Stop sweating the small stuff
- Don't worry about who doesn't like you, who has more or who's doing what. Instead, cherish the relationships we have with those who do love us
- But mostly, given another shot of life, I would seize every minute... look at it and really see it... live it and never give it back

Despite the changes which come into our lives and with gratitude in our hearts, may we fill our days - as much as we can - with those things which matter most.

Let us relish life as we live it, find joy in the journey and share our love with friends and family.

by Sister ShimizuWinder