Contributed by Kristen
This week, we’ve done an interpretation of Alma’s letter to his son. This is not meant to be a translation, but rather a reimagining of the letter, written with eyes for our own children.
My dear one,
Sometimes when we are side by side, words fail me. Sometimes I cannot think of what it is I want to say to you, but I feel it deep inside me. So, I am writing you a letter. I send this letter with my love, and with my blessing. May my words comfort you long after I am gone.
My child, I was not always the person I am now. That is how it goes with us in life; we die a thousand deaths before our bodies reach their end. But once, I lived a life I now barely recognize. I made terrible mistakes. I said words and did things which deeply wounded others. I want you to know who I once was so that you understand how I have come to believe. Can you imagine? Perhaps you cannot. I myself can barely remember.
An angel came to me. Why, how, or for what cause I do not know. I can only kneel in gratitude that she did come. She called me by name. She told me of the pain I was causing. She bid me repent. To change. To make things right.
This, my beloved child, was the most painful death of all. For I realized then that I could not make right the wrongs I had caused. I had caused damage I could not take back, even with a hundred apologies. I saw, in the angel’s eyes, the trail of my choices. I saw how they crept into lives with thorns placed to draw blood. I saw what was planted in my heart, and how its cruel vines destroyed the tender seedlings of my people. I was filled with shame. I am bad, I thought, I am terribly, horribly bad and I can never undo how my badness has hurt goodness. This is when I felt despair. I saw how helpless I was. I saw, truly saw for the first time, my place in the web of life.
I fell to my knees. I was afraid. And then… I have spent the rest of my life trying to make sense of what happened next. Jesus happened next. Jesus came to my mind and lifted me to my feet. He put his hand on my cheek and he wiped away my tears. He looked in my eyes, and I knew that he knew. He knew what I was. He knew who I was. But my son, I was not afraid. I saw the world like a garden, spilling over with vines and flowers and fruits. At the center, a tree. I knew, deep in my heart, that the roots extended over the entire place, breathing life in and out of the soil, the good and the bad and the ugly. The tree saw my badness. But there were no earthquakes, no fires, no screams of accusation. She just saw me.
I looked again, blinking. Was it a tree, or Jesus at the center? I looked until my eyes ached with the seeing, until they were indistinguishable, and when I woke up my heart was no longer aching.
Do you see, my child? Do you understand? I thought my story was the only story, but it was just a chapter in a grand, endless book. I am connected to my ancestors and to the generations that will follow me. I am connected to my enemies, to my friends, to the ocean and the trees and the spider crawling on the dry earth. Do you see? This is why I ask you to write the stories of our people, to tell them again and again. Every story is a little bit more of God, another sapling springing from the reach of those endlessly nurturing roots.
I want to keep trying, my child, because it is so good and so sweet, and because it changed me to know that I am small, but precious, and eternally connected. I hope it changes you too.
With love,
Alma
Ideas for play
Contributed by Kristen
- Read the Book of Mormon storybook
- Read a Child’s Book of Blessings
- What do you want your children to know about Jesus? What stories do you want to nurture them? Write them down and share them
- Talk about parents’ blessings. Have you ever had a blessing from your mother/father? Consider giving your child a blessing or writing a blessing for them
Artwork
Poetry
Compiled by Caroline
FOR A NEW BEGINNING
By John O’Donohue
In out-of-the-way places of the heart, Where your thoughts never think to wander, This beginning has been quietly forming, Waiting until you were ready to emerge.
For a long time it has watched your desire, Feeling the emptiness growing inside you, Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.
It watched you play with the seduction of safety And the gray promises that sameness whispered, Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent, Wondered would you always live like this.
Then the delight, when your courage kindled, And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream, A path of plenitude opening before you.
Though your destination is not yet clear You can trust the promise of this opening; Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning That is at one with your life’s desire.
Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk; Soon you will home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.
Music
Compiled by Caroline
milk & honey mamas 
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