Joys and Sorrows

My oldest brother was taken home today to that God who gave him life. While I seek to come to terms with the profound lessons intrinsic to the experience of losing a sibling, how appropriate that tonight I would stumble onto a quotation I had not read in many years:

"We knew before we were born that we were coming to the earth for bodies and experience and that we would have joys and sorrows, ease and pain, comforts and hardships, health and sickness, successes and disappointments, and we knew also that after a period of life we would die. We accepted all these eventualities with a glad heart, eager to accept both the favorable and unfavorable. We eagerly accepted the chance to come earthward even though it might be for only a day or a year. Perhaps we were not so much concerned whether we should die of disease, of accident, or of senility. We were willing to take life as it came and as we might organize and control it, and this without murmur, complaint, or unreasonable demands"
--Kimball, Faith Precedes the Miracle, 106

May we all take life as it comes, "and this without murmur, complaint, or unreasonable demands." May we all see the big picture, reflecting in our actions the understanding that comes therefrom.

Another Great Quotation and an Update

I stumbled onto another uplifting quotation for difficult times today, and I did not wish to pass it by without finding a permanent home for it. Bits and Pieces is as good a storage place as any, so here it is:

"The Lord gives us a spirit of hope and a feeling of comfort and confidence that we can overcome the obstacles we face. He has shown the way to gain strength during our struggles. With His assistance, we have the ability to succeed. Listen to His words of counsel and comfort: 'Fear not, little children, for you are mine, and I have overcome the world and none of them that my Father hath given me shall be lost.'"
--L. Lionel Kendrick, "Strength During Struggles," Ensign, Oct 2001, 24

I have not before heard the name of Lionel Kendrick, but he is clearly a wise man. I will do my best to take his words to heart.

On another subject, for those who may still wonder about my fried brain from last March, I have recovered nicely. Despite the grueling nature of the Praxis II test, I managed to score 199 out of 200. Trust me, no one was more surprised than I!

I was very pleased to receive in the mail a Certificate of Excellence for my efforts on that test, but I was even happier with the results of my writing test for the VCLA exam. I spent hours in front of a computer in DC taking the Virginia Communication and Literacy Assessment for potential teachers. As I left the center when my time was up, the center director said, "Let me print out your score." Almost immediately her printer began to spit out a document that had my name and identification numbers written boldly at the top. In the middle of the document, the printer ink had formed these words: "Percentage of multiple-choice questions answered correctly on the Writing subtest: 100%."

I have tried and tried to think of another time that I might have achieved a perfect score on a standardized test. Sorry, but there isn't one.