The White Ribbon

To those who feel like they 'can't come home.' Have faith. Your family loves you more then you know, as shown in this story.

The account of a homecoming as related by successful prison warden Kenyon J. Scudder brings to the surface tender feelings held in the heart:

A friend of his happened to be sitting in a railroad coach next to a young man who was obviously depressed.
finally the young man revealed that he was a paroled convict returning from a distant prison.
His imprisonment had brought shame to his family, and they had neither visited him nor written often.
He hoped, however, that this was only because they were too poor to travel and too uneducated to write.
He hoped, despite the evidence, that they had forgiven him.

To make it easy for them, however, he had written to them asking that they put up a signal for him when the train passed their little farm on the outskirts of town.
If his family had forgiven him, they were to put up a white ribbon in the big apple tree which stood near the tracks.
If they didn't want him to return, they were to do nothing, and he would remain on the train as it traveled onward.

As the train neared his hometown, the suspense became so great that he couldn't bear to look out of his window.
He exclaimed, "In just five minutes the engineer will sound the whistle indicating our approach to the long bend which opens into the valley I know as home. Will you watch for the apple tree at the side of the track?"
His companion said he would; they exchanged places.
The minutes seemed like hours, but then there came the shrill sound of the train whistle.
The young man asked, "Can you see the tree? Is there a white ribbon?"

Came the reply, "I see the tree. I see not one white ribbon, but many. There is a white ribbon on every branch. Son, someone surely does love you."

In that instant, all the bitterness that had poisoned a life was dispelled.
"I felt as if I had witnessed a miracle," the other man said.
Indeed, he had witnessed a miracle.

Today a yellow ribbon has replaced one that is white.
However the message is the same: "Welcome home!"
Men, women, and children everywhere are tying yellow ribbons around everything.
Not only are they being tied around trees, but also around lampposts, street signs, and mailboxes--even about the necks of pets. So overwhelming is the demand for yellow ribbon material that busy suppliers working around the clock cannot meet the need.
A classic yellow bow was one which completely girdled a large plane bringing soldiers safely home.
I have surmised that each one who tenderly tied a yellow bow was singing, humming, or at least thinking of the words of the song "Tie a Yellow Ribbon 'Round the Old Oak Tree."

-Thomas S. Monson -Never Alone -April 1991 General Conference

Until you next read these words;
I'll be watching the leaves.
Enjoy the day!

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Dream

All I remember is that there were some paintings. And I had just deduced that all the paintings of a man in a white tux with black hair were forgeries. How? Each button had a different sort of design on it -like Japanese letters-. They were supposed to all look the same, though at first glance you wouldn't notice anything out of place.

-S.N.D