The One With The Oak Tree Poem

So my Dad is pretty much awesome! He is a bishop (and he's awesome for more reasons than that) but because of that he had the online URL address for Sunday's broadcasted Stake Conference for Western Idaho. Did you go to it? It was pretty spectacular. He gave us the URL because he knew with how sick Preslie has been it would not have been an enjoyable experience for us to sit in a chapel for two hours. So we got to watch it online instead. I loved all the talks, and I actually got to hear them all between wet willies I gave to my two teenage brothers who kept falling asleep and the work I was doing on the upcoming Activity Days activity (with little girls from 8 to 11). But I was most hit by Uchtdorf's talk - and most importantly the Oak Tree Poem that he read.

I'm not the biggest fan of the Oak Tree analogy with our lives and how we need to be strong like an oak tree with deep, immovable roots. Not because I don't agree with it. I completely agree with us being strong and immovable. I think it's more because it seems so outdone. I want an analogy that hasn't been played out. Sounds terrible, right? I'm sorry. I love to hear the analogies, no matter what, but I like them more when they are original. Okay . . . . I better move on cause this is sounding worse and worse.

Interestingly enough though, President Uchtdorf's poem about the Oak Tree really hit me. The whole thing didn't necessarily strike a chord any more than the usual. But the last paragraph really hit me. I felt like I needed to hear it. With how many crazy and almost terrible things have been going on in our little family lately, I have been feeling really run down and sad, and yes, a little selfish by saying "we are good people, why do these things happen to us?" And then I heard this.

Until today, I wasn't sure
Of just how much I could endure
But now I've found, with thanks to you
I'm stronger than I ever knew

I guess I have turned into a sappy Mom, which I swore I would never do! But that phrase really brought peace to me, and helped me to realize that even though the past couple of months (especially the last couple of weeks) have been so difficult, I am still here. I still have my family, and my home, and a job, and food on the table, a room over our heads, clothes. And most importantly, I still have my kids. 

We have been lucky to have almost lost both of our children. Sounds weird to say lucky, right? I feel lucky to have had the near death experiences with both of them that we have. I feel closer to them now. I feel like I appreciate them a little more. I appreciate Parker spilling his milk for the seventeenth time that day, and Preslie throwing all her food off her high chair, and the cute little messes of toys that are always littering the family room floor, and the fingerprints that always cover the floor-length mirror in my bedroom, and I even appreciate my son's incessant talking. 

Until today, I wasn't sure, just how much I could endure. But I did. I overcame. And I will continue to overcome.

Here's the whole poem, just in case some of you didn't hear it and don't know what I'm talking about. 

The Oak Tree

by Johnny Ray Ryder Jr

A mighty wind blew night and day It stole the oak tree's leaves away Then snapped its boughs and pulled its bark Until the oak was tired and stark But still the oak tree held its ground While other trees fell all around The weary wind gave up and spoke. How can you still be standing Oak? The oak tree said, I know that you Can break each branch of mine in two Carry every leaf away Shake my limbs, and make me sway But I have roots stretched in the earth Growing stronger since my birth You'll never touch them, for you see They are the deepest part of me Until today, I wasn't sure Of just how much I could endure But now I've found, with thanks to you I'm stronger than I ever knew

I think I may have to rethink my distaste for the Oak Tree analogy.