Richard L. Evans wrote:
Sometimes it would be well if we could step aside and see ourselves as if we had never seen us before—and not only see ourselves, but also see the things around us, free from the tired impressions we have of places and people. Out thoughts, our very lives, often become imprisoned by the commonplace, by the familiar look of familiar things—things which if lost, would be wonderfully welcome if we should find them again.
It would be well to take a fresh new look not only at ourselves and our surroundings, but also to look at our loved ones, whom we sometimes so much take for granted. It would be well to take a fresh look at the loveliness of each new day; at the place we go when the day is done; at the walls we live within. The places we live in and the people we live with are not perfect (as we ourselves are not perfect). They may not always be at their best (as we ourselves are not always at our best). But it would be well at times to look at them as if we had lost them—and then suddenly saw them there.
So often we succumb to the commonplace. Much of boredom, of pessimism, much of discouragement, much of disinterest comes from thinking of familiar things in the same familiar way, of letting minds run in ruts, of thinking the same thoughts, thoughtlessly in the same sequence, instead of mentally stepping aside and seeing ourselves, our surroundings, our loved ones and our daily lives with daily gratitude to God for all that is ours.
This world we live in is not a thing of chance, nor do we have a limitless lease on the life that here we live, not our loved ones in this life. And we are none to young to step aside and see ourselves in our own familiar setting, and ask what really matters most. And seen in proper perspective, the scramble for shoddy things would seem shoddier; and life and loved ones and work, and peace, and virtue, and a quiet conscience, and beauty of the earth, and the sound and solid things would all take on new meaning. And somehow we would come closer to acquiring the courage to live as we should live and to be what we should be—if we would step aside and see ourselves and our surroundings with a new appraisal and purpose.~Richard L. Evans, From the Crossroads (New York, New York, Harper and Brothers, Publishers, 1955), 103
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“Whatever woman may cast her lot with mine, should any ever do so, it is my intention to do all in my power to make her happy and contented; and there is nothing
I can imagine that would make me more unhappy then to fail in that effort.” ~ Abraham Lincoln
(Posts with a preamble asterisk are for a more general audience and not specific to teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.)
