The Rose

In Ghana, roses just are not seen. Flowers are mostly on shrubs. Oh how I miss garden flowers. Today I received two emails. One from my son Jon with a picture of a Hydranga - Jess and I love Hydrangas. It was his gift to me today, knowing how much I loved them. The other email was from a friend in Henderson. It had a picture of a rose and a parrable to go with it. The message was so beautiful and true I just had to post it on our blog.


THE ROSE

A certain man planted a rose and watered it faithfully, and before it blossomed, he examined it. He saw the bud that would soon blossom and also the thorns. And he thought, "How can any beautiful flower come from a plant burdened with so many sharp thorns?" Saddened by this thought, he neglected to water the rose, and before it was ready to bloom, it died.

So it is with many people. Within every soul there is a rose. The God-like qualities planted in us at birth grow amid the thorns of our faults. Many of us look at ourselves and see only the thorns, the defects. We despair, thinking that nothing good can possibly come from us. We neglect to water the good within us, and eventually it dies. We never realize our potential.

Some people do not see the rose within themselves; someone else must show it to them. One of the greatest gifts a person can possess is to be able to reach past the thorns and find the rose within others. This is the characteristic of love, to look at a person, and knowing his faults, recognize the nobility in his soul, and help him realize that he can overcome his faults. If we show him the rose, he will conquer the thorns. Then will he blossom, blooming forth thirty, sixty, a hundred-fold as it is given to him.

Our duty in this world is to help others by showing them their roses and not their thorns. Only then can we achieve the love we should feel for each other; only then can we bloom in our own garden.

Profound Wisdom

I have spent the last month rivited to the pages of Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis.I always loved The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe with all its symbolism. I've heard countless talks in our LDS General Conferences where C S Lewis has been quoted, many of them coming from Mere Christianity. So when I saw the book on the shelf of our new bookstore in the mall here in Accra, it reached out and said "Take ME!"

Here are some of his quotes I love:

"Aim at Heaven and you will get 'earth thrown in': aim at earth and you will get neither."

"Pride is spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or even common sense."

One of the great secrets of life: "When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him."

"Man cannot disobey those laws which he shares with other living things (gravitational laws, biological laws), but the law which is peculiar to his human nature(a moral law of good conduct), the law he does not share with animals or vegetables or inorganic things, is the one he can disobey if he chooses."

"You cannot make men good by law: and without good men you cannot have a good society."..."nothing but the courage and unselfishness of individuals is ever going to make any system work properly."

"He gave them (man) free will because a world of mere automata could never love and therefore never know infinite happiness." (then giving our free will to obedience of God's laws or the Law of Nature (moral conduct) brings infinite happiness)

"The more you obey your conscience, the more your conscience will demand of you."

"No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is."

"Christ because He was the only man who never yielded to temptation is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means."

"The great thing to remember is that, though our feelings come and go, His love for us does not. It is not worried by our sins, or our indifference and, therefore, it is quite relentless in its determination that we shall be cured of those sins, at whatever cost to us, at whatever cost to Him."

Well I could go on and on - I love this man's thoughts and reasoning.

Is Pride More Important than Peace?

I love Sunday's in Ghana. When you go to church, doctrine is preached by almost everyone who gives a talk. Now mind you these are just members who give the talks. They are like you and me. Well sort of. The difference with them is their only souce for information is their life experience, the scriptures and the Liahona.

Today in Kasoa Wared, Sr. Tay gave a talk on Forgiveness. She used Doctrin and Covenants 64:9-10, and Matthew 18:21-22. We are to forgive everyone. We are to forgive 7 times 77. But what I loved about her talk was not just that message but her reasoning behind it.

If you do not forgive she said, you are filled with bitterness and hatred. The more you hold onto an unforgiving heart, the more it cuts you. Prayers are hinderd. If our unforgiveness is against our spouse it will poison our marriage. You will stop praying together. Your feelings for your spouse will be anger and resentment. Your example shall bounce back to you in your children. Though you think it frees you, it only fills you will self hatred and bitterness. Often pride gets in our way. "Is your pride more important that your peace?", she asked. You block your blessings when you cannot forgive. You bring sickness upon yourself. In the end you help the devil fulfill his mission - to destroy your happiness, your peace, your joy, your family.

Forgiveness on the other hand brings love, peace, and joy into hearts and into the home.

I will miss these people. They say things so clearly.

Ghana's National Arboretum

Our trip to Aburi took us to Ghana's National Arboretum. These gardens were created by the British in 1890. The villages in the tops of the hills above Accra are much cooler. The area was a retreat for the British government officials who wanted to get relief from hot coastal areas. The entrance to the gardens is lined with palm trees that are over 100 years old. There are 7 gardens. Some I remember are the presidential garden where visiting presidents and rulers plant a tree; the children's garden, where children gather for games; the spice garden where cinnamon trees, nutmeg trees, lavendar trees, an allspice tree, and others I can't remember. These were grand gardens in the early 1900's. The Ghanaians are doing the best they can to keep the beauty of the gardens, but their budget is limited.

The gardens are a peaceful place, and a retreat from close quarters of life the Ghanaians experience in everyday life. Ghanaians make do with what they have. While we were getting out of our van this one pulled up and out piled 36 children and 6 adults: 42 people in all! They were sitting 3 deep.


These tall trees grace the countryside in Ghana. They are my favorite trees because they grow so straight - right up to the heavens.

Though the gardens seemed to be a a natural state rather than a manicured one, it was still beautiful and we enjoyed being outdoors in a rather organized garden. We even brought a picnic lunch.


The Cocoa Tree - The fruit on this tree makes your chocolate. Cocoa is one of Ghana's top two exports.

And even great creatures were in the park. This is a millipead. I've read about them and seen pictures in books. But here before my feet was the real thing! Can you see all their millions of feet?!

City Versus Village

Which One is Full Service?

The contrast between the City and the Village in Ghana is often extreme. This is one example.

Aburi, the Carving Village

Saturday was a day off for us. We traveled with two couples up to Aburi which is in the mountains above Accra. The English began settlements up here in the late 1800's to get away from the heat of Accra. At the top of the winding road the view is spectacular - a scene from "Out of Africa". Not far from there is the village of Aburi. This is a wood carving village. Everyone in the village carves, or sells wood carvings. For generations they have been doing this - teaching from father to son. We saw some wonderful carvings - a round table base of carved elephants and a large drum made of a split tree trunk. Unfortunately these were too big to fit in our luggage.

These men are carving by their shops. They draw the image on the wood and then they start carving. They have a real gift. Notice the Barrack Obama T-shirt on one of the carvers.



President Obama is a real hit in Ghana. I'm told he will be visiting Ghana sometime in July. The Presidential palace is just down the street from us. The people will go crazy if he come and I expect the streets will be gridlock ALL day long.

A New Way of Jogging

Saturday on our way to Aburi we wound up this mountain road. When we stopped for a view we turned to get back into the car and found this man jogging down the top of the divider - maybe 6 inches wide! His balance was amazing- thank goodness.... It's a little hard to see - He was just hopping off to catch up with the truck you see on the right hand side of the road.