"Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life."
--S. Carey

Art credit: Jeune Fille d'Orphelinat by Nicolaas van der Waay

Happy hearts and happy faces
Happy play in grassy places--
That was how, in ancient ages
Children grew to kings and sages.

--Robert Louis Stevenson

​Art credit: An Archipelago Scenery with Children by Lotten Ronquist

I have been gathering folk songs for awhile now as I have slowly come to understand why learning folk songs of other nations should matter to us.

I just read the foreword of an old folk song book I picked up and I think this sums it up:

"If we, in America, are going to be good neighbors with the rest of the world, it is important that we come to know how people in other lands think and feel. The songs of a people reveal more truly than do anything else the spirit and mood of their daily lives... Some of them are very old and all of them have for generations been used to express the spirit of the people from whence they came. 

"Because we are such a young nation we, in America, have not yet developed very much fine music of our own. If, however, all of the boys and girls are given an opportunity for training in music, in the course of time we too shall have a great American musical art."

The Arts are the great preservers of Truth through the generations. What will we be leaving behind from which generations to come will learn about our hearts?

​Art credit: Sunday Evening in a Farmhouse by Amalia Lindegren

Our MU topic this month is History and this reminder from the Delphian Reading Course is a good one:

"...let us remember we are not reading chiefly for information. We read to:
*develop our insight into the mystery of life
*to gain an individual viewpoint
*to establish our standards of conduct
*and modify our standard of judgment

We are seekers of wisdom..."

Art credit: Apollo and the Muses by Claud Lorrain

"The word heart...often denotes the inner feelings of an individual. Our hearts--the sum total of our desires, affections, intentions, motives, and attitudes--define who we are determine what we will become."
--David A Bednar

That's why so much focus on a well-educated heart here!

Art credit: Maternite by Elizabeth Jane Gardner

A little WEH instruction from Dieter Uchtdorf:

"Would you honestly want everything spelled out in every detail? Would you honestly want every question answered? Every destination mapped out?

"...most of us would tire out pretty quickly from this kind of heavenly micromanagement.

"We learn the important lessons of life through experience; we learn through our mistakes."

Art credit: The Lesson by Leon Caille

The object of any mother who enjoys life is to share her enjoyment with her children.

PS--How many life lessons can you read in this painting?

​Art credit: A Mother's Love by Gaetano Chierici