Good Thoughts to Live By #14 and The Light of the World

A thought has been lingering in my mind since Easter Sunday.  The symbolic nature of the signs given of Christ entering the world and of his resurrection that were recorded in the Book of Mormon made me think of light.


Everyone in the New World (Western Hemisphere) and Old World (Eastern Hemisphere) saw the special star in the sky.  That was a great light announcing the Light of the World had arrived.  


The New World had a day and a night and a day as if it were one day.  The sun did not go down.  More light in the world was the sign the prophets had said would come when the Savior was born.  


When Jesus Christ was crucified, in the New World it became so dark that no light could be seen anywhere and the mist of darkness hung so heavy that a fire could not be made.  After three days of having no light, the Savior of the world appeared to them.  He said, 


"I am the light and life of the world." 


 What great ways to remind people of Him who came to make it possible for all of us to live in the light!

My colored eggs at Easter weren't hard boiled . . .

. . . so the eggs had a wee bit of color in them when they were cooked.

If you do not follow the right path, you will be lost.
-The Buddha

Brothers, have not fear of men’s sin.  Love a man even in his sin, for that is the semblance of Divine Love and is the highest love on earth.  Love all of God’s creation, the whole and every grain of sand in it.  Love every leaf, every ray of God’s light.  Love the animals, love the plants, love everything.  If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery of things.  Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day.  And you will come at last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love.
-Feodor Dostoyevsky

The face of the wise man is not somber or austere, contracted by anxiety and sorrow, but precisely the opposite: radiant and serene, and filled with a vast delight, which often makes him the most playful of men.
-Philo

“Nothing Doing.”
Some us us need to discover that we will not begin to live more fully until we have the courage to do and see and taste and experience much less than usual . . .
-Thomas Merron

THE DILEMMA

To laugh is to risk appearing a fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach out for another is to risk involvement.
To expose feelings is to risk rejection.
To place your dreams before the crowd is to risk ridicule.
To love is to risk not being loved in return
To go forward in the face of overwhelming odds is to risk failure.
But risks must be taken because the greatest
hazard in life is to risk nothing.
The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing,
is nothing.
He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he cannot learn, feel, change,
grow or love.  Chained by his certitudes, he is a slave.  He has
forfeited his freedom.
Only a person who dares to risk is free.
-From a Dear Abby column

Living is the process of continuous rebirth.  The tragedy in the life of most of us is that we die before we are fully born.
-Erich Fromm