A Bright Red Shawl

A small six-year-old boy wandered away from his handcart company during a storm and was lost. When the storm subsided, Robert and Ann Parker realized their boy was missing and began searching.
For two days an organized search was unsuccessful.
The decision was made that the company must move on because of the approaching winter.

A pioneer journal records the following:

"Ann Parker pinned a bright [red] shawl around the thin shoulders of her husband and sent him back alone on the trail to search again for their child.
If he found him dead he was to wrap him in a shawl; if alive, the shawl would be a flag to signal her.
Ann and her children took up their load and struggled on with the company, while Robert retraced the miles of ... trail, calling, and searching and praying for his helpless little son."

One suspects that he did not just casually look behind a few trees or leisurely walk along the trail, but that he vigorously investigated every thicket, every clump of trees and gully or wash.

"At least he reached a ... trading station where he learned that his child had been found and cared for by a woodsman and his wife.
[The boy] had been ill from exposure and fright.
[But] God had heard the prayers of his people.

"Out on the trail each night Ann and her children kept watch and, when, on the third night the rays of the setting sun caught the glimmer of a bright red shawl [above her husband's head], the brave little mother san in a pitiful heap in the sand.
... [She] slept for the first time in six ... days."

Merrill J. Bateman -Coming unto Christ by Searching the Scriptures -October 1992 General Conference

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

-Sarnic Dirchi

The Dream

I was walking to the church to get my car when I encountered Paulina and a friend who were looking for a ride to this place they needed to get to. It wasn't too out of the way, so after getting all my things in the car and moving other things around, we drove to this carnival type of place that reminded me a bit of some of the old cities...like Italy or somewhere. I turned down a paced cobblestone walkway that moved over flowing hills inbetween buildings. I was hesitant to drive along it, as I only saw people walking around through the passageway, no other cars. But Paulina and company didn't seem too concerned. We parked, and I recognized the venue, the carnival play place I'd been to before at a different time though I hadn't realized this carnival was still here. I headed towards a ball pit sort of place and encountered my brother standing in line. I asked him why he was there and he said that he was trying to get enough tickets. I happened to have a coupon that would get him more tickets, but he wanted to get them all himself. I asked him what he wanted to get and he said that he really needed a Bunson Burner that worked. Apparently his was broken or something? I left him and ended up in a dressing room. My friends were having me try on a dress for fun. So I did, but it didn't feel quite right on me, and I felt that the bright blue and pink didn't look good on me, especially because some of the dress was see through and I didn't want people looking at my legs like that. So I grabbed another gown and it became apparent that I was on some sort of tv program as the 'dressing room' was actually a false room so that the cameras could watch me unobserved. I left the dressing room and encountered a motherly looking woman who pinned a bunch of green to me...which made it a bit difficult to move as I could accidentally poke myself. But the green dress felt...good....if it wasn't just a mock up.

-- different dream from a different day I just remembered--

The countryside was on fire. And I happened to be driving by when I saw a home that I would visit when I was younger. The porch was on fire, the wooden pillars red and smoldering. Taking my camera crew with me -because I was a news reporter- we went up to the front porch with smoldering flames all around. I knocked and went inside, and it was like....there wasn't a fire literally on their doorsteps. The kids were all running around having fun, the parents unconcerned. It was disconcerting.

Then the unholy tones of daylight pulled me away....
and I became myself again. :)

-S.N.D