stads park, antwerp

fall in forresty belgium...a perfect way to spend a saturday. it's funny that after a day in antwerp, in the city, in shops, in the consumerism mode, in the huge crowds, doing what is IN... it's funny that after all that, looking back and realizing that the best part of the day was spent in the city park, amid leaves and geese and bunnies, not clothes and advertising and money spending...

i forget that more than i wish i did.

oh and do you get the LDS gems? They send daily, youth, family, and church history gems to my inbox throughout the week. Short thoughts from God's most recent words, spoken through his living prophets, to help me not go veering off in all sorts of directions. a much needed thing for me. enjoy this recent favortite, and subscribe. it's not your typical junk mail. actually, i actually love opening them.

“It is not easy to give up our personal priorities and desires. . . . [But] ‘he who lives only unto himself withers and dies, while he who forgets himself in the service of others grows and blossoms in this life and in eternity’ (Gordon B. Hinckley, Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley [1997], 588).

“A familiar example of losing ourselves in the service of others—this one not unique to Latter-day Saints—is the sacrifice parents make for their children. Mothers suffer pain and loss of personal priorities and comforts to bear and rear each child. Fathers adjust their lives and priorities to support a family. The gap between those who are and those who are not willing to do this is widening in today’s world. . . .

“We rejoice that so many Latter-day Saint couples are among that unselfish group who are willing to surrender their personal priorities and serve the Lord by bearing and rearing the children our Heavenly Father sends to their care. We also rejoice in those who care for disabled family members and aged parents. None of this service asks, what’s in it for me? All of it requires setting aside personal convenience for unselfish service. All of it stands in contrast to the fame, fortune, and other immediate gratification that are the worldly ways of so many in our day.”