Hear these sounds just as you heard them from my womb, before you entered the noise of barter and betrayal. “Let your ears hear the quiet things, the whispers of angels and the patient river currents. Never look at another person without discerning beauty. And see God’s light in everyone you meet, just as the Samaritan saw it in you. Acquaint yourself with the glory of rain and the majesty of dawn. You have let yourself mock it in the past. “Let your eyes find beauty and interpret it well. Let the tangled philosophies of those who would trade debate for prayer unknot so that you might feel the strength of my love, which overpowers any words.
Let your thoughts consider the grace that preserved you. As your mother I hereby bless your mind to calm, to settle into your healing.
Did they do this to you? But they did not kill you. And oh, you did have friends! They were like you and so you found each other. You were eager to be done with our petitions and get outside to run with your friends. I could see it as you fidgeted during evening prayer. You were hungry for action and mystery, restless for any new thing. I loved the way your mind worked! Always inventing adventures. You used to preen by any glass that showed your reflection. Perhaps even you will recognize your image. “Once this hair is clean and combed, you’ll look more like yourself. Oh, so many cuts!” She massaged soap into the hair and then poured cup after cup of water on it. Oh, how unruly your hair is now! We’ll wash these tufts. “Can you hear me, Son? I am anointing you, preparing you for healing. (Yes, the seeking always comes first, whether it be from curiosity or boredom.) He was sure that the boy had perished in the caves and deserts, where he had sought and then fallen into a life of deception and drunkenness. He didn’t expect him, she mused-and certainly not like this. Her husband did not yet recognize their son. The oil shone on the boy’s thighs, which were naked to the crotch. The Samaritan had used oil and wine to cleanse the wounds. Both legs wore cloth bandages like incomplete shrouds. The boy’s legs were curled up, as though he had emerged from a generous womb, still wearing the blood of birth. Her husband helped set the body on the table.
She has hosted her own TV show and was a featured speaker on a weekly radio program broadcast internationally.Įlaine Cannon passed away in 2003 at the age of 81.She knew it was her son the moment the Samaritan opened the door, carrying the bloody body. Among her books are Adversity, Baptized and Confirmed: Your Lifeline to Heaven, Choose the Right, Women Testify of Jesus Christ, The Truth About Angels, and three "Little Books": The Little Book of Big Ideas about Hope, The Little Book of Big Ideas about Joy, and The Little Book of Big Ideas about Love, her latest.įor thirty years she was a daily columnist for intermountain newspapers. Lecturing extensively throughout the world, she has had opportunities to meet members of the Church of all ages and nationalities.Įlaine authored or coauthored more than 50 books and has recorded dozens of talk on tapes.
She also served as associate editor of Church magazines for youth and their leaders. Before receiving that call, she was a member of the Mutual Improvement Association’s governing board and the Church’s curriculum planning, writing, activities, and correlation committees. Elaine Cannon was a former general president of the Young Women organization of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.