"Priceless"

Here is a sad first: Christmas 2009 was the first Christmas I didn't take a single picture! With the seemingly unlimited supply of cell phone cameras and digital cameras, it seems easier than ever to take pictures, but I missed out this year on capturing the moments.

The need to no longer worry about film has made it possible to take far more pictures than ever before. Our pictures are never the play-by-play of the events in our lives, our photos are only of the highlights. These highlights we treasure and have captured in photos.

For me, ideas are like pictures. Capturing on paper my thoughts and feelings is just as important as taking photos. I don't have to write every word or idea down. Only the high points and the highlights. Just as scriptures, written by ancient prophets, provide truth and insight and wisdom for daily living, records and accounts of our own mortal sojourn on this earth may give us a better perspective and insight as to our place in the Universe and God's plan of happiness for each of us.

My writings are like photo albums of ideas. Recently I got a letter back from a publisher rejecting another one of my submissions. Someone asked me, "Was it worth the time spent writing it?"

I think the answer is in one of the poems I wrote. I wish I could have given the poem to my friend right then:

Priceless Gifts from the Sea

Some set sail on an ocean of words
And cast their nets to the sea.
But the soft soaked sand of a tide bound beach
Is the best searching place for me.
Some find success with their nets and their hooks
Along with their rig and their gear.
But I find truth from the simplest sounds
Of shells held close to my ear.
Although the size of their catch is great
And a fine purse they'll get for their trade.
The pile of mine wouldn't earn me a dime
But I'm not finding shells to get paid.
The worth of a truth isn't found in its price
Whatever the market may be
Truths are like treasures we find on a shore
They are as priceless as gifts from the sea.

Pictures are priceless. Truths are priceless. But if ever there was a definition for the word "priceless", it would be . . . my little family.

They are a priceless gift.