As a child I remember bringing home the candy after trick or treating on Halloween. So many wonderful pieces of candy! Then the best part was the trading circle. We would bring our piles of candy to the circle and trade. Snickers were better than skittles in my sugar hierarchy and I remember it took a lot of bubblegums to get a snickers.
Perhaps life is a big game of trading. Trading our time and our money for what we think is of most worth is what we do with or without intention every day. Conversations, education, reading, lessons, media, sports, serving, working, limitless possibilities can be traded for the minutes, hours, days and years. Vacations, lessons, toys, homes, transportation, games, food, and more endless choices are purchased with our pennies and dollars every day. We trade according to our values. Eve traded an apple to lead the human race into mortality and God's plan. Esau traded his birthright for a mess of pottage. Esther risked her security to save a nation from destruction. The Savior offers a trade: our sins for His grace. We offer our contrite hearts and He gives His spirit, strength and joy.
As our pocketbooks diminish and the time ticks on the trading goes on and the rules suggest that we become at the end what we have traded to be. What we trade and sacrifice for becomes part of who we are. One of my favorite poems by Anne Campbell speaks of a trade that mothers make.
You are the trip I did not take, you are the pearls I did not buy, You are my blue Italian lake, you are my piece of foreign sky.
You are my Honolulu moon, you are the book I did not write,
You are my heart's unuttered tune, you are a candle in my night.
You are the flower beneath the snow, in my dark sky a bit of blue,I love that poem! That trade was one one the best I have ever made. With Anne Campbell I say, "I am happy! I have you!"
Answering disappointment's blow with "I am happy! I have you!”
