The heart is the center of our feelings. The eye of the soul perceives the eternal realities so important to the heart. In the modern World, in which we live mainly for the moment, it is easy to overlook the taste of the soul for a greater sense of time and a profound community. We tend to give superficial explanation for our actions, to speak in literal terms instead of focusing on the reasons of the heart. A man explaining why he was getting a divorce went on and on with minor complaints about his wife. What he did not say was what was obvious from other conversations, that his heart was going through a major change. He wanted a new life, but tried to justify all the accompanying pain with superficial reasons. Because he did not speak deeply about what was going on with him, he was cutting himself off from the soul of his divorce. Many people wonder what they can do earlier in life to prepare for their eventual frailty. They scrutinize those who cope gracefully with infirmary and disability, trying to find out what distinguishes them from those who collapse in on themselves. We have to find a passionate search for expression and language adequate to the pleasures and pains of life. We can learn from them the importance to everyone of the effort to translate experience into words and photographs. The point of the heart is not simply to express ourselves, but to create an external, concrete from in which the soul of our lives can be evoked and contained. #RandolphHarris 1 of 7

As we look into our hearts, we screen ourselves. Many conclude that our personality traits have a greater influence on our fate than do the particular situations we endure. For if people are sensible and good-tempered, old age is easy enough to bear: if not, youth as well as age is a burden. According to this reasoning, we are doomed or blessed by the accident of our natures. We can predict from our earlier manner of coping with life how we will react to our later changes. Children paint every day and love to show their works on walls and refrigerator doors. However, as we become adults, we abandon this important soul task of childhood. We assume, that children are just learning motor coordination and alphabets. However, maybe they are doing something more fundamental: finding forms that reflect what is going on in their souls. When we grow up and begin to think of the art gallery as much more advanced than the refrigerator door, we lose an important ritual of childhood, giving it away to the professional artist. We are then left with mere rational reasons for our lives, feelings of emptiness and confusion, expensive visits to a psychotherapist, and a compulsive attachment to unreality, such as shallow television programs. When our own images no longer have a home, a personal museum, we drown our sense of loss in pale substitutes, kitsch novels, fake news, or formulaic movies. #RandolphHarris 2 of 7

Successful cooping in our attitudes, or the degree to which we make up our minds to overcome obstacles, depends on the strength of our conviction that life is worth living no matter what complications are imposed on it. As the poets and painters of centuries have tried to tells us, art and passions are not about the expression of talent or making of pretty things. It is about the preservation and containment of soul. It is about resting life and making it available for contemplation. Art captures the eternal in the everyday, and it is the eternal that feeds soul—the World in a grain of sand. How we react is more important than is the fact that life can be hard or fraught with peril. How aversive or damaging an event is depends on how we choose to take it—which means that we can control its effects on our bodies and health by our attitudes and beliefs. Some people are subjected to harsher circumstances than others are, such as through war, racism, poverty, unemployment or age. However, even under extreme conditions, it is possible not only to survive but to retain some sense of health and well-being. #RandolphHarris 3 of 7

In waking life, most of us only see with our physical eyes, even though we could, with some effort of imagination, glimpse fragments of eternity in the most ordinary passing events. There is also a way to judge if our hearts are broken. Dreams teach us to look with that other eyes, the eye that in waking life belongs to the artist, to each of us as an artist. Our hardships are shaped in childhood. Parents who do not help their children cope with suffering leave them as adults with the immature defenses of denying their problems, distorting their role in them, or projecting the cause onto others. In contrast, parents who stay with their children when they are upset help them learn the capacity to bear and plan for pain. While our personality style and beliefs certainly influence our response to difficulties, it is not irrevocably. Additionally, our experiences from childhood affect our later coping styles, it is not necessarily in a linear fashion. Some people raised under neglectful circumstances manage to garner enough strength to lead satisfying lives, and some raised under supportive conditions waste years through addictions and other detours away from their original aims. However, people that have a history of generous exchanges with others tend to carry these inclinations with them to the end of their lives. Wherever they live, whatever they do, they readily make connections with other people and derive satisfaction from doing so. #RandolphHarris 4 of 7

People who are able to build strong bonds in their lives, when frailty encroaches they tend to be surrounded by loyal helpers. There can be no certain formula for security, but kindness is rarely wasted and the habit of generosity almost always serves as a strength. However, until a person has demonstrated the truth so completely that one can never again be shaken in one’s conviction about it, one should not talk much to others about one’s belief. For the conscious and subjective reaction of their doubt might confuse one unless one’s own mind is already so firmly planted in understanding and faith that it remains calm in the midst of confusion and doubt. Remember, the intellect argues, but the spirit knows. The intellect examines; the spirit has no opinions. It is the nature of the creative mind to respond to us, to give us what we ask when we ask it, and in the way in which we ask. We must let go of the mental images which we dislike, and cling to only those which are more nearly after our heart’s desire. Feel that all the power there is in the Universe is flowing into your word. It is impossible to feel this way if you think that you are dealing with will power, mental coercion, or even mental suggestion. Realize that you are dealing with an eternal presence which when called upon responds to you. “Works of justice could not be destroyed,” reports Alma 12.32. #RandolphHarris 5 of 7

When awake, why does the eye see a thing more clearly in dreams than the imagination? God the Father is merciful and has infinite love for you despite your faults. When you feel worthless, remember the worth of souls is greater in the sight of God. Refrain from repeatedly thinking or saying negative words about yourself—there is a clear difference between humility and humiliation. Identify and use your unique talents rather than dwelling on your weaknesses. When you feel overwhelmed by expectations and challenges, do not fight the battle alone. Follow the example of small children, and drop to your knees in prayer. The mind which states a problem is the mind which knows the answer. We know our motives and desires. When we engage in sincere, honest reflection, we do not rationalize nor deceive ourselves. Throw the problem into mind for solution and the answer will rise to consciousness. In actual practice one does this by stating that one already knows the answer to one’s problem. The intelligence within one knows, and this intelligence within one which knows causes one to consciously know. A soul-centered understanding of God sees the interpenetration of love in ordinary life. #RandolphHarris 6 of 7

Seeking and receiving the acceptance of the Lord will lead to the knowledge that we are chosen and blessed by him. It is not enough mere to state that intelligence knows. We must combine our statement that there is an intelligence which knows, with a conscious acceptance that this intelligence is now functioning in our conscious thought, causing us to know. When a spring breeze blows through an open window as we sit reading in a rare half-hour of quiet, we might recall one of the hundreds of annunciations painters have given us, reminding us that it is the habit of angels to visit in moments of silent reading. We are directed not by a blind force, but by an infinite intelligence which is not only willing, but whose very nature compels it to give us guidance. The feeling of being accepted by someone we love is a basic human need. Being accepted by good people motivates us. It increases our sense of self-worth and self-confidence. See that you look to God and live. The ultimate source of empowerment and lasting acceptance is our Heavenly Father. He knows us. He loves us. God does not accept us because of our title or position. God does not look at our status. God looks into our hearts. He accepts us for who we are and what we are striving to become. Seek and receiving acceptance from God will always lift and encourage us. #RandolphHarris 7 of 7