Tragedy Turned Into Realization

I believe the search for the mean of life is never ending. There is always more I want to know about what the meaning of life is. For most people, there seems to be one instance when they have an "Ah-Ha" moment and everything starts making sense. Some of these moments are tragic and it really makes the person sit back and look at their life in the bigger picture.

This moment happened to me my freshman year of college. I had just moved out and started a new chapter of my life. I went home for Thanksgiving break thinking this was going to be a relaxing weekend to see my family and friends.

I received a call from a frantic friend at eleven o'clock at night stating our friend had been a in serious car accident and was being med-flighted to Boston, he didn't make it through the flight.

I live in a very small town so this loss hit everyone especially hard. We spent nights upon nights grieving with each other at the crash site and at our close friend's house. Five years later, the thought of this still upsets me.

There is not much I can say I took away from this tragedy but I did realize a lot. Life seemed so superficial until this tragedy happened and it definitely lowered me back to reality. I realized that me, nor any of my friends or family, were invincible to tragedies. You start taking the little things for granted and paying closer attention to the people you love and the things you love doing. Throughout this tragedy, I realized that the meaning of life is not to have a nice house, nice clothes or a lot of money, but to be happy.

Jessica Spurrell

How an "Accident" Helped Me Find More Meaning by Jennifer Stone

When I was nineteen, something happened to me which made me see the world in a different way.  Up until then, I had never really faced any challenges in my life.   I had good health, I did well in school and I had great friends and family.  In fact, I was with a group of friends when it happened.  We got into a car accident.  Three of my girlfriends and I were on our way to UNH to visit another friend on her birthday.  It was snowing out and the roads were slippery.  We got lost and ended up on a small two lane highway, bickering about which way to go.  I remember looking up and seeing a white car fishtail toward us and then start to spin around and lose control.  It hit us and pushed us backward into a ditch.  I was in the passenger seat and our car was so crushed that the glove compartment was almost in my lap.  I looked down and saw that my leg was broken, no x-ray needed.  

They had to use the jaws of life to get the other girls out of the backseat, but luckily no one's injuries were life threatening.  Everyone had huge scrapes on their chests from the seatbelts.  The EMTs said the seatbelts saved our lives.  Once at the hospital, I was expecting to get put in a florescent colored cast and sent on my way home, but they told me the break was too clean to mend properly without some extra measures.  I had a choice.  They could either put me in a cast that went all the way up to my thigh for six months or they could do surgery to put a rod into the bone and I would only be on crutches for a month.  They said if I chose not to do the surgery, there would be no guarantee that my leg would heal properly and I might end up having it anyway.  I chose the surgery.

Once I got home from the hospital, I was in more pain than I had ever experienced in my life.  I spent a lot of time watching the clock so that I could take my next pain pill. It was depressing just to wake up in the morning and know that I had to spend the next 16 hours lying awake and hurting.  Even after the pain subsided a little and I was able to get around on my crutches, everything was a challenge.  All I wanted was home cooked food, but I couldn’t cook because I needed crutches to stand and they occupied my hands.  Going up and down the stairs at school felt like a death defying feat amongst all the other students rushing to get around me.  I had to get rides everywhere because I couldn’t drive.  I hated having to be dependent on others.

I remember the day the doctor gave me a walking cast and told me I could stop using crutches as one of the happiest days of my life.  It was a sunny spring day and I remember sitting outside on the steps of my house and appreciating the progress I had made. Even though it still hurt, I walked all around the house that day just because I could.  As the months went by, I still had lingering pain in my leg and I walked with a limp.  I met my future husband during this time and I remember trying so desperately to walk through the pain so that he didn’t know I had a limp.  I was so thankful that it wasn’t a permanent condition.

I spent a lot of time wondering why this had happened to me.  I used to think about it every day.  I had a limp for almost a year so it was something that was always with me.  The experience made me a much more introspective person.  I wanted to know what it was I was supposed to learn from this life lesson.  Looking back on it twelve years later, I think that it made me appreciate the plights of others.  I now feel sympathy for handicapped people who go through life facing what I only had to experience for a short amount of time.  I learned that people are out there everyday, facing challenges that I might not even be able to imagine. Being able to walk away from this experience relatively unscathed has convinced me that I have a real purpose in this world, which is why my life was spared when it could so easily have been taken.  It made me appreciate the blessings that I have been given in this life and which I used to take for granted.  Even though it was both physically and emotionally painful for me, I wouldn’t change it because it made me a better person.

Spiritual Places

When I think of Spirtual experiences, I think of places that make me feel at peace, places that are beautiful and wonderous in themselves.  Pictures of places I have been that I think of as spiritual: 
         Acadia National Park is a place I enjoy walking and biking, Dixville Peak Mountain is a place I enjoy snowmobiling and Assisi, Italy is a place I went that made me feel I was above the clouds.

posted by, Christine Deyo

Dealing with a Family Illness by Jess Wilson

About 4 years ago my dad delivered the news that my grandmother was diagnosed with Dementia. Prior to learning about my grandmother I had beliefs, but did not practice them as much as I felt that I should. After finding out about my grandmother I found myself turning to the internet for words of wisdom to help with coping. More often than not I would end up on a site with scripture to help with specific life situations, feelings and emotions. This is one of the sites I have grown to love over the years: http://scripturemenu.com/

2 years later we found out that my other grandmother was diagnosed with Alzheimers. At this point in my life I was finding it harder to deal with my emotions by just reading passages off the internet, so I started attending sunday services again. Being in the church reminded me of all the sunday mornings I had spent with my grandmother in church. My family not be the most religious, never took me to church so my grandmother took it upon herself to take my brother and I, along with our cousin. I remember always getting excited to go to her church and listen to her sing the hymns. In this instance, being in a place that holds memories is what has helped me deal with the illness of a family member; however, my belief that they will be okay after they pass is also something that has helped me deal.

As of today both of my grandmothers are still alive, but both illnesses have taken over the individual that I had loved. Neither of my grandmothers remember who I am, and are far from who they use to be. For me it is easier to think that the people I grew up with have passed away awhile ago, but their memories live on.

My Sign Posts

These are the thirteen core beliefs that I choose as sign posts along the path I am seeking in my life. I find them very comforting. Many people think "Mormons" are very different from everyone else and many times think we aren't even Christian... I think the sooner we learn that no one question is wrong and no one answer is right for everyone, the sooner we can learn to live together in harmony. What do you think?

13 Articles of Faith

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1.We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost.
2.We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression.
3.We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel.
4.We believe that the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel are: first, Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; second, Repentance; third, Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; fourth, Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost.
5.We believe that a man must be called of God, by prophecy, and by the laying on of hands by those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel and administer in the ordinances thereof.
6.We believe in the same organization that existed in the Primitive Church, namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, and so forth.
7.We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, and so forth.
8.We believe the Bible to be the word of God as far as it is translated correctly; we also believe the Book of Mormon to be the word of God.
9.We believe all that God has revealed, all that He does now reveal, and we believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to the Kingdom of God.
10.We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory.
11.We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.
12.We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.
13.We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; indeed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul-We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.

We have questions that need answers and Answers that need questions. Here’s a list of question we have asked. Are there any responses that you can of?

1. Find a personal picture or song (on the web or in your own collection) that inspires your beliefs, spirituality or religion and put into words [as best as you can] what, why and how you are inspired.
2. What do the words RELIGION, FAITH, SPIRITUALITY represent to you and do you think everyone "needs" to have any of these to be happy, well adjusted contributing member of society?.
3. Most cultures support the tradition that spirituality and wisdom increase with age - do you agree or disagree. State why and post [if you can find] a culture, religion or other on the web that correlates with your thought process.
4. On a personal level as you aged did you sway from your original [taught] belief system? Do you believe this change was due to different adversities, life changes you coped with or was it something less severe such as aging?
5. Research up to two different faiths/spiritualism/belief systems [other than your current one] - Give the websites used in this research and if you had to choose or wanted to choose a different path which of these would make most sense to you and why?
6. Find and post a website with information about the God gene.

7. What are some old myths or fairy tales that depict older people as being wise or having special powers?
8. Can you explain some of the main differences between Spirituality and Religion?
9. Kohlberg’s stages of moral development is a widely accepted notion and is described in his famous “Heinz Dilemma”. Can you think of another widely known moral dilemma that is depicted in a story?