The Kaleidoscope

Or The Cathedral, or Messages in Eyes and Water, or Looking Through the Viewfinder of God, or Perfect Six-Sided Symmetry in Stillness

Written Wednesday September 7, 2022

I remember receiving my first kaleidoscope when I was about five and living in Salt Lake City. It was just a cheap toy, but I was still amazed whenever I looked from the outside—which contained seemingly random pieces of beads and tinsel—to looking through the eyepiece and seeing everything in perfect 6-point symmetry.

Like the child that I was, though, I left it outside one day in what we kids called The Cave—which was actually a long row of blackberry bushes which arched overhead, connecting with the neighbor’s fence, forming a sort of tunnel in which a child could walk.

One day, I realized I’d left it in The Cave, and running outside, I found it all dirty and mud-soaked. I tried to clean it up as best as I could, but when I looked through the eyepiece, I was shocked to find ants crawling around inside!

I screamed and dropped it…then (like the girl I am)…I ran inside crying!

However, looking back at what I had seen, there was a kind of macabre beauty in the vision of the ants crawling around in their symmetric dance amid all of the colorful beads and tinsel.

Later in my life, I made silver kaleidoscope necklaces for one of my best friends we’ll from now on call Mellie (short for Mellifluous) and I.

After my Leap into Heaven, when I was moved into my new room on the main floor of our house (which was funded generously by many of you reading this), I bought this beautiful silver and white kaleidoscope called the Color Spirit Kaleido.

and, in a stroke of inspiration, I put these stickers all over it:

I knew then on that day, what I know now: that when you look through the Viewfinder, you realize that all is as it should be.

I think life is a lot like that. Consider the girl who just lost her boyfriend…or who cannot decide what to do with her life or even what—if anything—to eat for breakfast…

Or the friend who doesn’t return the favor, no matter how much she preaches of kindness…

Or the woman who is overwhelmed with children and responsibilities, managing her life seemingly all by herself…

Or the child who has been misunderstood, and even abused at the hands of those who should have been her caregivers.

Or the elderly couple, just waiting to die…

All of these messages of despair can be found by looking at the outside of the muddy Kaleidoscope…but yet hope can be found by looking through the Viewfinder of God.

Considering this kaleidoscopic view of life…if we do not have the faith to trust God…that through His power and glory, everything will be made right in the end…well, then just trust someone who does have the faith. That’s the biggest and most powerful lesson I learned from my beloved now-ex, JJ Brown.

This is what Elder Patrick Kearon said in the last General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

This message—that everything can, indeed, be made perfect in Christ—is also found in water—especially Snow, I’ve found.

Now, I think we should consider the following scripture, 1 Nephi 19:23, where Nephi says that we should liken all scripture unto ourselves, that they might be for our profit and learning.

There are numerous lessons to be learned here. I think one is that that all things denote that God is. All things can be considered scripture, if we look through God’s eyes.

I know that another lesson water and kaleidoscopes can teach us is that not only God exists, but He is constantly expanding, as well as contracting—just like the Universe—just like the Golden Kaleidoscope my beautiful friend bought me all the way from Israel, for Christmas. This one was different from all the others, however, because the beads were fixed in glass, yet turned on two opposing dials—creating a new dimension which was collapsing and expanding at the same time.

Now let’s consider the following images and videos, which signify that there must be opposition in all things—even good things—just as there must, indeed, be a Mother in Heaven who looks after us.

In this iconic scene from the show The Chosen, Jesus Christ explains that some things we cannot explain with our minds, but must, rather, be felt with the heart.

Drinking the Kaleidoscopic Kool-aide of Christ means absolute surrender. It means first having the faith that life may look hectic and weird on the outside, but, if we have the patience to look through the eyes of God, or at least knowing that that eyepiece exists even if we cannot find it at the moment, that it’s actually all in perfect symmetry.

Even if I forget things…I’ve learned to surrender to this message: everything is as it should be.

Soon we can grow into a sure knowledge that the path we trod—though seemingly messy and chaotic—is as it should be. Because if we look closer at the Water of Life, everything and anything combines into perfect symmetry.

And now I will end with this video—which details how we can all be of Christ, or the Crystal—and once we realize this, we will naturally want to rescue all of His children. I know that we each must learn what the Merkabah is, and how to use it, in order to fulfill our future missions.