Ponder the Present

Today I went for a long run straight up the hill next to my house. The road just kept on going to just about the top of the mountain. I’ve never been that way before. It was a fantastic view from the top - overlooking Salt Lake City. On my way back I walked through the cemetery and read a few of the tombstones. I saw one of a mother and 4-day old daughter who both died on the same day in the 1824. It not only amazed me that their tombstone was still there, preserved, but also the amount of history the exists in a cemetery.

I also feel a close connection with the Mormon Pioneers who settled here so many years ago. Evidence of their lives are still engraved in the land, for example, in Cottonwood Canyon you can still see where they cut granite out of the mountain to build the Salt Lake Temple, like a bite taken out of an apple. I feel gratitude for their hardships; back then it took almost a week to haul granite stones to the Temple site, and today I can drive there in just under 30 minutes.

I look around me and see many man-made comforts that have been installed since then… warm homes, carpet, paved roads, electricity, running water, and even the ease of communication with cell phones (or this blog).

Things have changed, for the better, I’d say.