October Day

Today in Sunday school our teacher shared this beautiful verse of poetry.  I loved it...not only for its' content, but also because I remember the author.  She is Helen Bauer's mom and lived in our ward for several years.  She was in her 90's and came every week, was very sharp of mind and spirit.  She was an inspiring example to me of enduring to the end.  Her poem was published in the Relief Society Magazine in 1961.  I wish I had the perfect picture to illustrate it, but the words are so descriptive that they may be enough.

October Day

Ramona Munford – 1961

Silence –

So profound, all nature seems inanimate.

No floating cloud to dim the burnished blue,

No breath of breeze to stir dead leaves still clinging,

No step to crush the bleaching grass in golden warmth,

The mountain sleeps.

Silence –

So intense, a sudden sound would shatter it,

Like breaking glass!

A day for dreaming,

For knowing God,

For peace.  

Our teacher also shared this excerpt from an article - I got a copy because I found it  so very true. Gladys Palmer has a wonderful way of teaching. I think she is my favorite church teacher of all time.  She is also a compassionate and understanding friend.  I would like to grow up to be like her!

Commentary

Three Cheers for Quiet Work

By Jeffrey S. McClellan (BA’94) Executive Editor BYU Magazine Fall 2013

 You've got to have a passion for anonymity in this work.  Quiet work infuses and sustains our lives.  Like the humble mortar that binds together the polished stone of a temple, quiet work underpins society, enabling our lives to function smoothly and to resonate with beauty.  Most of us do quiet work; our efforts are not applauded by large audiences or accompanied by grand awards or celebrated with banquets or press releases.  Accountants, nurses, construction workers, parents; lived saved, problems solved, improvements made, tears dried—all with no fanfare and no credit line. 

Quiet work.  It can change our lives.  Anonymous, subtle, discreet, it affects the course of history—personal or international—with hardly a headline. 

Like the grandeur of creation, much of the quiet work around us transcends the bustle and clamor of other activities in life, taking its glory not from the attention granted it but from the effort itself.  This anonymity is, in part, what endows quiet work with its nobility.  

The idea for the article came from this poem, also very good.

Quiet Work

Matthew Arnold

(1822-1888)

One lesson, Nature, let me learn of thee,

One lesson which in every wind is blown,

One lesson of two duties kept at one

Though the loud world proclaim their enmity--

Of toil unsever'd from tranquility!

Of labor, that in lasting fruit outgrows

Far noisier schemes, accomplish'd in repose,

Too great for haste, too high for rivalry.

Yes, while on earth a thousand discords ring,

Man's fitful uproar mingling with his toil,

Still do thy sleepless ministers move on,

Their glorious tasks in silence perfecting;

Still working, blaming still our vain turmoil,

Laborers that shall not fail, when man is gone.