A Whole Life

Do you ever experience a moment in time where life stands still as you take in the beauty around you - maybe as you rock your baby to sleep, as you read your toddler a bedtime story, when you see a a loving smile from a friend, or as a child puts their chubby arms around your neck?  And you try to engrave the moment into your mind so that when it is over - you may be able to glimpse it again in your memory?

I cherish these moments.  I've noticed that when my kids wake up in the morning - if I have taken the time to commune with God - I see them as they really are, I am filled with love for them and I want to take them in my arms and hold on to them.

I realized last night, that these moments happen when I am suddenly aware of the reality of the moment I am in.  My body and my spirit are united and I am filled with love.  I see the moment for what it is.  I see the people as they really are.

Too often I go through my day in a fragmented state.  My body is doing something while my mind is thinking of something else and my spirit is half-asleep.  I'm often thinking of future tasks.  Life is just as real all around me as it is in those cherished moments, but I am too distracted to notice it.  I was researching "chastity" the other day for a lesson I was giving at church, and I read a talk by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland where he spoke about how soul = body + spirit, and then he said:

 "When the spirit and body are separated, men and women cannot receive a fulness of joy..."

 When I am distracted with temporal things, I fail to see things as they really are.  I can not see the beauty all around me.  How sweet life is when I take time to connect with God (and therefore my Spirit)!  I feel His love running through me and to all the people around me.  I am whole.

I was reading in Patricia Holland's Quiet Heart and she mentioned that holiness stems from the same root word as wholeness.  I can see why.  I want to live my life as it really is - as a whole person.  Why settle for a fake, watered-down version anyway?  That is what the adversary loves - to distract us from that which is real.

The activities I engage in either help me live in a real way or distract me from that which is real.  The books I choose to read either give me a superficial "escape" from reality or help me see myself and life in a truer way.  The things I have in my house also help me stay in touch with truth or keep me looking away from it. Even the ways I choose to entertain myself either contribute to my wholeness or detract from it.

I've had enough moments that I want to hold on to, because I know they are real - those that I wish I could pause then keep in my mind forever -  to know that "wholeness" is, by far, the way to go!

I've been keeping this in mind as I've been going through the house.  I'm trying to get rid of that fluff that distracts us from that which is real.  Too much stuff is a distraction.  It is great to get rid of it!  I'm having a great time.

I've been thinking of some of the activities that help me feel whole:
-Praying
-Being in nature
-Going to the Temple
-Really listening (to my beautiful kids and whoever I come in contact with)
-Reading my scriptures
-Reading a book with substance
-Giving or getting a hug
-Pausing for a bit
-Playing
-Working
-Learning
-Writing
-Admiring
-Seeing
-Serving
-Creating
-Feeling
-Being awake in the early mornings
-Walking or Running
-Reflecting

Think of it... in the faces of the people around us, in the whisperings from Heaven, in the meaning behind our actions and thoughts - there are treasured moments just waiting for us to notice them.

Why fret about the evanescent things?  I have real things to think about.