The Oak Tree A mighty wind blew night and day.It stole the Oak Tree’s leaves away.Then snapped its boughsand pulled its barkuntil the Oak was tired and stark. But still the Oak Tree held its groundwhile other trees fell all around.The weary wind gave up and spoke,“How can you still be standing Oak?” The Oak […]
With Shark Week coming to its end today it seems fitting to share a shark experiment that teaches a valuable life lesson: “A marine biologist was involved in an experiment with a shark. He placed a shark in a tank along with other small bait fishes. As expected, the shark ate every single fish. The […]
Work / Life Balance – it’s the eternal struggle we all strive for but never seem to feel like we have right. I really love the talk given by Coca Cola CEO Brian Dyson back in 1996 at a Georgia Tech commencement ceremony where he shared his analogy of the five balls we are all […]
You know it’s a rough day when first thing in the morning you jump on an early call at home that runs longer than expected so you go racing out the door and make the 15 minute drive to your office because you are now 10 minutes late to meet with the folks that have […]
It was 12 years ago today…my friend Steve and I pulled into the parking lot of a shopping complex to meet up with two guys driving down in a second car that were going to follow our car down to Lake Powell for a houseboat trip. When the other car pulled in an the man […]
“You have been assigned this mountain to show others it can be moved.” – unknown Lately troubles seem to travel into my life in packs. No sooner do I start working to solve one problem when another two or three have already reared their ugly head, and before I can take a breath there’s this […]
“You can keep going long after you think you can’t.” – Roger Knapp If I’ve learned anything the last few weeks it’s that this quote is true – you really can keep going long after you think you can’t. There have been several times the last few weeks when I’ve been so tired from the […]
Some days we really need to hear this particular song…today would be one of those days… Its worth your time to have a listen: Or at a minimum read the lyrics: Many nights we prayedWith no proof anyone could hearIn our hearts a hope for a songWe barely understood Now we are not afraidAlthough […]
They’ve been together for nearly 58 years, Boyd and Loa. They’ve had eleven children together. They’ve run their 1,100 acre dairy farm together. They’ve lived in Kenya Africa together where they taught people to farm in order to help them become self-reliant. They’ve had to bury two of their eleven children together. They’ve been through […]
When my son Dalton was a little boy, for some reason he could not grow bangs. His hair would grow on top and on the sides and in the back, but it just wouldn’t grow in the front. So for the first few years of his life I kept him in baseball caps to disguise […]
There is no shame in admitting you need help. In fact, your life will get so much better when you do. Between 9am and 10am this morning I got a phone call from my daughter who was calling from her college campus where she had arrived to her class building to find emergency responders and […]
For the past several months we have been house hunting to help my son and his wife find a home that can accommodate their growing little family…and I am all about helping them find a place because the faster we find it the faster they can start filling it up with more adorable grandbabies! And […]
“The only way to take sorrow out of death is to take love out of life.” -Russell M. Nelson Eight years ago this week I received a phone call telling me that one of my very best friends in life, Steve Gasser, had passed away unexpectedly. I remember the pain in my chest and that […]
“Don’t stop until you’re proud.” -unknown This past week I rode a bicycle from Vermont up to Montreal Canada. Now I know that might sound like no big deal to many of you, but for me it was a HUGE deal! For starters I hadn’t ridden a bicycle since I was twelve years old. In […]
“For a seed to achieve its greatest expression, it must come completely undone. The shell cracks, its insides come out and everything changes. To someone who doesn’t understand growth, it would look like complete destruction.” ―Cynthia Occelli When I look back at the last few years it is amazing to me to see some of […]
“One of the great innovators of our time, Steve Jobs of Apple, had this insight: “You can’t connect the dots looking forward,” he said. “You can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.” What did he mean by that? Perhaps an illustration will […]
“Your time is your investment. What are you investing your time into? Are you spending your time on something that will pay off in the future?” -unknown My little brother Andy is an amazing songwriter, singer, and guitar player. In the lyrics to one of his songs he wrote many years ago he states, “Our […]
“The fact is, every single one of us is a work-in-progress. We may be at different stages in life. We may have different strengths and weaknesses, but there isn’t a single person on the planet who hasn’t felt vulnerable or made mistakes. Nor is there a single person who couldn’t be better at something in […]
Tonight I was reading through some of my Grandmother’s old papers and I came across a talk she had written long ago. In this talk she discusses how people (especially young people) commonly say “What I do with my life is my own business and concerns no one else.” She points out that those who […]
“If anyone ever tells you your dreams are silly, just remember here’s a millionaire walking around who invented the pool noodle.” – unknown That quote makes me happy because it’s a great reminder to everyone who makes fun of someone else’s dream that they might want to think twice before making fun…you never know what […]
“When you struggle against this moment, you are actually struggling against the entire universe. Instead, you can make the decision that today you will not struggle against the whole universe by struggling against this moment. This means that your acceptance of this moment is total and complete. You accept things as they are, not as […]
Autumn is one of my favorite seasons because I love seeing the amazing Fall colors as the leaves on the trees scattered up the mountain behind my home turn beautiful shades of red and yellow. I love apple cider and pumpkin flavored everything. The difficult thing about Autumn is that it also tends to be […]
I love a great inspirational true story. Here is the story of determination and persistence that occurred with the building of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York back in 1870-1883. I had never heard this story before and it was so inspirational! “In 1883, a creative engineer named John Roebling was inspired by an idea […]
If you’ve made a mistake, fix it. If you don’t know how to fix it, then learn! And whatever you do, don’t throw your hands up and act like there is nothing you can do about it, because you can ALWAYS do something about it – there are always choices you can make that will […]
Good Timber -by Douglas Malloch The tree that never had to fight For sun and sky and air and light, But stood out in the open plain And always got its share of rain, Never became a forest king But lived and died a scrubby thing. The man who never had to toil To […]
“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently he starts […]
“You never realize how little self-control you have until they put chips and salsa in front of you at a Mexican restaurant.” #truth Having self-control isn’t always easy, as is so brilliantly illustrated in the example of trying not to eat the chips and salsa placed in front of us…we can all relate to facing […]
“Sometimes you climb out of bed in the morning and think, “I’m not going to make it”, but you laugh inside – remembering all the times you’ve felt that way.” – Charles Bukowski How often I’ve woken up thinking that exact thing…thinking “I’m not going to make it”…completely overlooking the fact that I have already […]
Nothing is more discouraging then when you are literally working your guts out to make something happen and you suddenly get a wrench thrown in your works. Having something unexpected trip you up can feel in the moment like you’ve hit a dead end. Especially if you are physically worn out and emotionally spent from […]
“I have learned that the head does not hear anything until the heart has listened, and that what the heart knows today the head will understand tomorrow.” – Jones Stephens Communication. It sounds like such a simple word but the reality is that communication is one of the most complicated things we do in life. […]
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