Make it Happen Cap'n!
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If the Jaws of Hell Gape Open
How do you survive despair? Where do you turn when all is dark and you feel lost, alone, forgotten? Where, for you, is relief? In my early 20s, I was diagnosed with diabetes. I once wrote about my search for light in that dark time. I cited the scripture passage that brought me peace in the aftermath: “And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine…
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Sweat If You Need To
“And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order.” – Book of Mormon, Mosiah 4:27 Some years ago, I decided to complete a ½ marathon. It’s not because I’m a runner; I’m really not a runner. I thought it would be a healthy challenge. It would make me consistently exercise (so as not to die during the event), and I wanted to be fit. Plus, the race I had…
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Valentines and Vaccinations
Grant had just finished building a cozy little home in Lehi for his wife, Virginia, and their four young boys. It was a labor of love he undertook in the evenings and on weekends. His days were spent working at Geneva Steel, the post-war employer that fed many Utah Valley families headed by returned soldiers. One autumn day, Grant felt ill at work and went to the infirmary. Virginia was notified; her husband had been taken to the hospital. Grant had polio. Grant was in the hospital for months. In February, Virginia, and another wife of a polio patient organized a Valentine’s party for the polio ward. The Salt Lake…
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I Want to Live Again
This post will make more sense to you if you’ve seen the Frank Capra Christmas classic “It’s a Wonderful Life.” If you haven’t seen it, what exactly have you been doing? I can’t fathom… George Bailey’s life wasn’t glamorous. It was the kind of life you and I live–mostly simple, with moments of miraculous and seasons of struggle. But after George experienced a crisis wherein he found out what it was like to not have that life–to be removed from all he built and loved, he begged his guardian angel to return him to his ordinary existence. “Get me back. I don’t care what happens to me. Get me back…
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If You Decide To…
Did you grow up reading Choose Your Own Adventure books? If not, I’m sorry, because they are amazing. Each book casts you as the protagonist of a thrilling tale, and with every page, you make a choice. “If you decide to hide in the cargo hold, turn to page 16. If you decide to make a run for the hangar, turn to page 23.” You decide to run for it but, hedging your bets, you keep a finger in page 16 just in case your gamble results in capture and game over. Enough turns of the story in, and you’ve resorted to using strips of paper from a Lisa Frank…
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A Birthright of Stories
The single most important thing you can do for your family may be the simplest of all: develop a strong family narrative. – Bruce Feiler, The New York Times Like many, I grew up with stories. A collection of bedtime fairy tales, Nancy Drew, the Choose Your Own Adventure series, as well as The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings series because my oldest brother was in to Tolkien and I read whatever I could get my hands on. I inhaled stories. I also had scores of family stories. I learned about how, when Dad and his brother were little, they got hauled down to the local police station…
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The Sun is Gonna Shine Again
Steve Martin has a bluegrass band. Yes, that Steve Martin. He plays the banjo and sings, and if you dig bluegrass, I think you’ll dig Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers. Martin and his colleague, Edie Brickell, wrote a beautiful musical titled “Bright Star.” Set in the 1920s and 1940s Blue Ridge Mountains, it’s a poignant story of love and loss. Some friends and I saw it this week, and the music has been echoing in my mind ever since. As I wrote that sentence, my brain had a hard time wrapping itself around the fact that, yes, I was at that show on Monday. It’s Saturday, and things…
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Be the Change You Seek
I’m fatigued. I’m tired of the societal junk I’m witnessing. Back-biting, in-fighting, political maneuvering, argument for the sake of argument. Seriously, I’m done. Not today, Satan. (Side note: I introduced this phrase to a friend who struggles with self-criticism, and told her she should use it as a mantra. She though I was telling her ‘not to date Satan.’ I mean, you know, both. Don’t allow Satan to trick you AND don’t date him or anyone resembling him.) Okay, back to it…Not today, Satan! I am actively working to reject the bad and embrace the good. And not in a head-in-the-sand Pollyannaish sort of way. I work to be educated…