A Date with Eternity: Epilogue

This story is a follow-on to the original article. It will be an addition of insights that have come with the perspective of time. I suppose a better title would be “The Wisdom of Perspective”. Please be patient as I explain what I mean.

In late Summer of this year (2018), Lori and I traveled to California to meet with Angela Salmon and her family to do a tour of some of the Redwood forests. It was a delightful drive with great anticipation of the wonders of nature that awaited us in the forests of California. However, when we glimpsed the first of the redwoods at a distance, I was rather disappointed. From a distance, the forest looked a bit like the following photo.

The forest is a pleasant and beautiful sight, but it didn’t seem like it was much different from any other forest. After all, we lived in the Northwest, where beautiful forest scenes are abundant. What was missing was some kind of indicator in the scene that would give our brains an appreciation of the scale of these enormous trees. The following photos illustrate my point.

When you see Lori and me in the picture, you can see how truly enormous these trees are. By comparing the size of our tiny bodies with the mighty trunks of the trees, this new perspective creates a significant difference in the appreciation of the wonder of the experience.

Thus, I hope you can see that perspective is vital to the full understanding of what we experience in our lives. To illustrate more fully, I’ll give you another example.

Lori and I celebrated our 40th anniversary on August 26th of this year. One of the activities to celebrate the occasion was a trip to the Portland temple to do an endowment session together. We were asked to be the witness couple in the session. While Lori and I were kneeling side by side in the endowment room, it brought back a vivid memory of kneeling across the alter from Lori when we were married 40 years before. However, this experience now included the perspective added by the passing of 40 years of time. I was deeply moved by the appreciation I had for 40 years of happiness with Lori by my side. Forty years ago, I only had an inkling of what was in store, but I had no real perspective to add depth to the experience. At this moment of my life, I had not only the eternal perspective brought by the temple session, but also the perspective of the passage of 40 years. It was a remarkable realization of how important perspective can be.

It all boils down to a valuable life lesson. We need to do things often to retain a perspective of life that will influence every experience we have and decision we make. A view into the eternities can be had daily from simple practices like reading the scriptures and praying. I now have a new resolve to be better at doing the daily things that keep my perspective wide enough to fully appreciate the experiences of each day.

Now I’ll try to wrap up the reason this article is an epilogue to the original article. The first article explained how I had a glimpse of the nobility and greatness of the soul of the person I was hiking with. Now, with the perspective of time and a deeper understanding of eternal principles, I more fully realize how fortunate I am to be sharing my mortal experience with such a wonderful companion. What was only a glimpse has become a certainty that will forever grace my life.