Veins of Gold

My dad is a sentimental fool, and how I love him for it. When he cries his voice cracks and he purses his lips in an effort to gain his composure. The pursing reveals dimples in his Paul McCartney face and his hazel eyes get glossy. He can't help it when he speaks from his heart. I love that about him because I inherited the same gene.

Last month was the first No-Person-Missing-From-Our-Clan Durkovich reunion in seven years. We all met at our cabin in Wyoming and one morning after breakfast my dad gathered his four daughters and one daughter-in-law around his knee and began to weep. He and my mom had recently come from New Mexico where they went through my maternal grandparents' belongings now that they have both passed away. I'm sure it is impossible to deal with the death of parents without thinking of your own children. Dad told us that he had been thinking about his girls and our special qualities and that he had made a list of five qualities each of us had.

This is my list. It's just a weathered piece of typing paper in my dad's messy writing but it is now one of my greatest treasures. I have always known that my dad loves me. It's extra nice to have tangible proof of WHAT he loves about me and WHO he believes I am.

It is so important to know who I am. I love this sentiment that a teenaged Henry B. Eyring wrote to himself:

When you finally realize who you are, you'll wish you had tried harder.

I am the child of Matthew Thomas Durkovich, Slavic Stud, Daddy-O Extraordinaire. He is my earthly father and I want to live up to that list. I want to be the girl he sees with his wise dad eyes. James E. Faust said that WE INCREASE THAT WHICH WE PRAISE.

I am also the child of a heavenly father, God the Father. He knows every good gift I am capable of carrying through this life. I don't know how many gifts there are on that list. I have managed to discover a few of what I call my "godly gifts." Most of them have been revealed to me during or after life's difficult storms. Character really is defined in the crucible of affliction. I am thankful for the hard times that have shown me what I am made of.

It is in men as in soils where sometimes there is a vein of gold which the owner knows not. -Jonathan Swift

My special list on typing paper helped me realize that it is important to be told what is loveable about me. Therefore, I need to tell others what I love about them. I am going to try harder to let the people in my life know how many gold veins I see in them. Well-timed angels have notified me of my gold veins on days that I've felt like a ordinary dirt clod. Nothing feels better than realizing you aren't a clod.

Tangible lists help.

The red, plastic measuring tape was one of the things I inherited from my grandmother. I am cuckoo for sewing notions. I put the 2 by my list because my mom has always called me her Bug #2.

Full Richard G. Scott quote: "With all my capacity I encourage you to discover who you really are. I urge you to discern your divinely given capacities."