The Oak Tree

I feel so full of gratitude for everything it may start spewing out of my ears. I am really enjoying looking back on my day, my week, the years, and my life. In doing so, I have come to the conclusion that I am immensely grateful for the people who have been put in my life to set a good example for me and my siblings, who have been at my side through the thick and the thicker, and have just smiled at me. People who have sang me a song over the telephone, eaten chocolate cake with me, gone kayaking, eaten terrible mexican food at absurd hours of the night, and so many others. I wouldn't be who I am today if it weren't for those people, and I am eternally grateful to them. 

I really like this poem, and I can't think of another post where it would fit more perfectly. Elder Ballard read this at the CES fireside last sunday, and it was great.

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