Today was a good day. I got to make a list. On a chalkboard.
Victory is mine! (I love being the one standing in front of a room full of people, holding the chalk. ... I may or may not have missed my calling as a 2nd grade teacher.)
In Relief Society today, we talked about peace (see yesterday's post about the lesson planned entirely around a song that I love). I talked a little bit about why that hymn is of importance to me, why it is personal to me. I expressed my feelings that we all need peace in our lives, for various reasons. I threw out a few examples of situations we may find ourselves in when we search and long for the peace that only the spirit can bring: illness, death, unemployment or underemployment, loss of a child, infertility, divorce, children making choices not in keeping with gospel standards, the end of a relationship, general life stressors. The list goes on and on. We all have something, and the trick is to master whatever it is that we have, to learn how to live with what's happening in our life or in the lives of the people closest to us. ... Because we all have our own trials and struggles, I didn't want to go into that. (Please. Who needs to have a bragging contest about whose struggle is the hardest? Not me. That stuff is personal. And usually depressing.) What I did want to do was play a word game and make a list.
(I heart words. I also heart lists, probably because they're made up of words.)
So, I wrote the word PEACE at the top and center of the chalkboard and asked the sisters to give me words that they associate with peace. I am not kidding when I tell you that, for over 10 minutes, I wrote on that board while I had women suggesting words and telling personal stories of how "peace" had been able to carry them through overwhelming life experiences. It was an awesome experience to be the chalk-holding conduit for these women, who had such widely varied experiences, yet all shared a testimony of how important it is to feel the love of the Savior.
Some of the peace-associated words that made it to the board (the board was covered, I tell you, COVERED, from left to right and top to bottom) in our word association game:
Happy
Harmony
Joy
Understood
Strength
Stability
Sanity
Confidence
Faith
Serenity
Quiet
Love
I'm so grateful for the atonement. I'm so grateful for the ability to feel peace in my life, and for all the different ways that peace can be communicated or given to us. Sometimes peace means happiness, or joy. Sometimes it's a quiet strength and a reassurance that I can do hard things. Sometimes it's an overwhelming feeling of love and gratitude for the people and blessings in my life. ... Sometimes it is a numbness that gives me a break from the emotional turmoil that is learning how to live in a body that I know darn good and well is hosting a malignant growth.
I love words. I love peace. I love the Lord and am grateful for the way in which He speaks to me. I am grateful for the knowledge that he speaks to all of us differently, for all of the different things that peace and love and acceptance can mean to me and to everyone else out there. Truly, God is good. I love Him!
