Skip to main content

The Beauty of the Gospel

By
I had a very sad and yet very interesting experience yesterday that really made me appreciate the gospel and the beauty of the plan of salvation.

A little while ago, one of the guys on the Rowing Team told us that his mom had Stage 4 Breast Cancer and that he was skipping practice to spend more time with her. Now personally, I couldn't believe this cause 1. If my Mom had breast cancer, I would pull out of school and go home to spend every moment I could with her, and 2. He hadn't made any big deal about it. He just told us and didn't expect any sympathy from us. He's a really nice guy, but it was amazing to me to see how well he was handling it.

Just yesterday, he emailed us to tell us that she had actually passed away that afternoon. All of a sudden, to me everything I was doing right then just seemed so trivial. I was just about to do some extra steady state after practice when I read the email, and while I was erging I just couldn't believe all the things in life that we put so much emphasis on, and yet don't really matter. To me, all these audition results and rowing results and having a big dinner and what I was doing in the day; it all just seemed so silly that that is what we think about all day.

Now I'm not saying that we should just think about life and death all the time and live in a tiny bubble of a world with our families, but it made me appreciate the important things in life a little more. It really reminded me of last semester, when I didn't call home except when I needed Mommy or Daddy, and how I was completely isolated outside of the family bubble. I never stopped to think of my family and what and how they were doing.

I feel awful about how I never called, and I call home a lot more now. And it is so wonderful to talk to Mommy and Daddy and the rest of the family! But it also made me appreciate the Atonement and the Plan of Salvation SO much more. I can't imagine being in his position and thinking: " I'll never see my mom again" and having to keep living life through that. To me, I don't know what I would do without a member of my family in my life, especially my PERFATO mama(: It's beautiful to think that we can still live together after we die, and that even after the Resurection we can spend time with each other.

Love you family and I'm thinking of you guys!

Comments

  1. John KennedyFebruary 8, 2012 at 10:36 PM

    We love you too mark and are glad we know the plan of salvation and how it gives us comfort and understanding

    ReplyDelete
  2. LarisaFebruary 9, 2012 at 8:10 AM

    Oh my goodness, Mark, I cried for that poor boy. Can you even imagine losing a parent at such a young age? We need to remember to pray for him and his family that their hearts will be comforted.

    We know you love us, Markie-Boy, although you have been much better at showing us lately :-) We love you too!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Quest for Birkenstocks

By
One of the main reasons I go to Germany every couple of years is to restock my supply of Birkenstocks.  I started buying them when I lived there, and I basically can't live without them now.  It just about kills me when a pair runs its course and needs to be thrown away.  I think in my lifetime, I've thrown away only three pairs.  One that never was quite right (the straps were plastic and would cut into my skin after a long day), one pair that I wore gardening one too many times (the brown dirt stains wouldn't come out of the white leather), and the pair that I was wearing when I broke my ankle (they were an unfortunate casualty of broken ankle PTSD because those purple and blue paisleys go down as one of my favorite pairs of all time).  I only threw out the garden ones a couple of days before I left for Germany, because I knew I would be getting a new pair. The only store where I have ever bought my Birkenstocks is Hoffmann's in Speicher.  (Well okay, t...
2 comments
Read more

Johannah's Bridal Shower

By
One of the only reasons to lament my daughter not living in Utah anymore? Sister Mecham.  When I think back to the absolutely classic, beautiful, elegant, heart-warming bridal shower she threw for Glo, I literally sit in awe.  Her talents and abilities are unmatched! Believe me, I was hoping anyone  would volunteer to throw Hannah a bridal shower.  Being only two weeks post-op, I knew it was going to be very difficult for me to stand up let alone host the thing.  I even asked several people about me throwing it, thinking they would tell me it wasn't  up to me, but do you know what they ALL said? Of course  I should host it. This is what we do, baby! So I took a deep breath and decided to do it the best I could do it, knowing that I would never equal what Becky Mecham could do. Since Hannah's wedding colors were Tigers colors, and since Hannah loves baseball, I figured a baseball-themed bridal shower would be perfect for her.  And she agreed! But l...
Post a Comment
Read more

Saying goodbye to KitTen

By
Last week, we said goodbye to KitTen.  Sadly, it was way too early for him to die. When I worked at Interlochen during the summers, I knew a medical assistant who fostered animals before they were put up for adoption by the local humane society.  She got a Siamese-looking kitten after I had already left camp and posted a photo of him on FB.  I reached out immediately. Growing up with Siamese cats, I really do love them.  I love their personalities, especially how vocal they are.  I adopted KitKat back when we lived in Dayton, but in a strange turn of events, a girl who was cat-sitting him before we left for Germany wouldn't give him back.  Since then, we've had mostly tabbies (with the GRAND exception of Hootie), so I was excited to start an adventure with another Siamese. We were living in PA at the time, so Mark and Allison brought him out to us.  Because he was going to be MY cat, I was determined to give him THE most perfect name, but in the end, w...
Post a Comment
Read more