I once wrote about what I called a “glass bubble experience”. It was the only way I could think of to describe seeing The Rolling Stones for the first time with my dad: “How does one even begin to describe what it feels like when the glimmer of one of those hoped for future memories flickers and burgeons and is all of the sudden a tangible, [but] incandescently tenuous moment in time? And even though you are quite literally part of it, the whole experience is completely surreal. It’s as if the moment itself is a floating glass bubble that you can peer into and be inside of, all at the same time.” ... I imagine those first few precious and glorious moments of parenthood with our little Chub will be something like that- a longed for future memory finally awakened; wanting to live inside of that glass bubble forever. becoming a mother has always had a deep tug on my heart. but it was just as important to me to find the right counterpart- the future dad who I knew I could trust with my precious babies. it took me awhile, but oh did I find him (and he was so worth the wait). and now we are mere days away from becoming parents, from holding our son for the first time. and that’s so exciting. but in the mean time, for these few last days while it is just he and I, I am going to relish in this little one being a literal part of me, in his insistent little movements, and in knowing that I am living with not one, but two beating hearts— that is a reckoning I feel will always be imprinted on my being, even after he has made his own entrance into the world. I can’t wait to tell him someday how much I have loved every part of this journey with him. I will always be grateful for it. //
“True creativity, as it reflects our capacity to see or to produce something in a new way, represents a restructuring that carries our individual imprint and uniqueness. Such can be equally true of the inventor and the painter, of the pianist as well as the poet. [Creativity] springs out of our seeing possibilities that we have not seen before and out of seeing connections between patches of truth and beauty and responding to them in ways we have not done before. Feelings that lead to poetry, mental imagery that leads to painting, and pondering that gives birth to prose are but examples... There is so much to see and so much to celebrate... Indeed, appreciation for the world (and all in it) which God has given us is but a prelude to adoration of the God who has so gloriously displayed His creativity for us...Beauty and truth are all about us, beckoning us to respond.” -Elder Neal A. Maxwell //
