Tag Archives: peace

Including Lost Loved Ones In Your Holiday Celebration

Losing a loved one hurts a lot. It’s a pain that never really goes away, it just becomes a little more bearable as time goes on. And while I am grateful that my religious beliefs are that we will see our loved ones again someday in the eternities, there is still the hurts of missing […]

The Light of Hope Still Shines, Even in 2020

With the craziness of traveling to Washington DC over the Thanksgiving holiday and returning home and immediately jumping on an all day zoom session of meetings and then speaking on a panel at a University, I hadn’t even noticed that the month of December had begun… Then I saw that I’d gotten a text from […]

Happiness Is A Warm Blanket

I woke up this morning to the beautiful scene of fluffy white snowflakes falling outside my window. As I sat looking across the living room at our lit up Christmas tree with the snow falling outside the windows it felt as though the heavens were wrapping my home in a big, fluffy, warm blanket…and with […]

DROP THE MIC! Seriously, It Couldn’t Have Been Said Any Better

There has been much said by many on the topic of politics, racism, hatred, anger, and all that divides so many people today. Much of what is said on the topics is done in anger or in inflammatory ways that only serves to make divides even larger. When I heard Dallin H. Oaks’ talk this […]

Want To Be Happy? Try A Dose Of Nostalgia

If you want to be happy try a good old dose of nostalgia. For those not familiar with that term it is defined in the dictionary as, “a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations.” With all the madness in 2020 I’ve thought quite […]

Indispensable Virtues

It’s been unbelievably heartbreaking to watch all the events that have occurred over the last week throughout the country. Tonight the feelings in my heart are too tender to try and write about them so instead I decided to share an excerpt from a talk by Jeffrey R. Holland titled “A Perfect Brightness of Hope”: […]

Those Who Gave All To Defend God, Religion, Freedom, Peace, and Family

It’s difficult to put into words the profound gratitude and respect I have for all those who gave their lives defending God, religion, freedom, peace, and family. May we never forget the tremendous sacrifice they made: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13

Nothing Could Be More Powerful Or Bring Us Greater Peace

When there are times of uncertainty, like what our world is facing right now, I often turn to reading inspirational talks in order to help me feel better. The talk I read today was by Marvin J. Ashton called “Peace”.  It was so powerful I had to share an excerpt of a story shared in […]

Conversations It Would Be Irresponsible Not To Have

One of the most difficult conversations to hold with people is the one where you ask them to walk you through their desires in the event of their passing away. It’s especially difficult to have that conversation with your aging parents at a time you know they are already feeling concerns about the dangers of […]

Remember Who You Are And What You Stand For

All through my growing up years as I would run out the door of our home, my mother would yell the phrase “Remember who you are and what you stand for”. I would guess I have heard that phrase literally thousands of times as a child. Most days she said it I would roll my […]

A Parent’s Letter To Santa

Last week we took our children and grandchildren to go ride the Polar Express train for Christmas. As I was watching my daughter-in-law getting her two year old son and her four month old daughter ready to go it reminded me of how utterly exhausting it can be to a mother with small children. The […]

Don’t Carry Excess Baggage

I’d packed and unpacked my suitcases so many times this last year that I wouldn’t even finish unpacking for one trip before I began packing again for the next one. Then I finally got around to unpacking them after my last trip but I left my suitcases sitting open on my bedroom floor because I […]

Let The Celebration Begin!

As we prepare to celebrate the Fourth of July holiday this week may we remember to “pledge ourselves to each other, and to the cause of human freedom, the cause that has given light to this land and hope to the world” as described by President Ronald Reagan in his speech given July 4, 1986: […]

The Good OCD: Organization and Cleanliness equals a peaceful Disposition

For the last five months my husband and I have been helping redo a house for my son and his wife to move into before their next baby is due to arrive. Going into the project we didn’t think there would be that much to redo, but the further we dug in, the more we […]

#BecauseOfHim We Can Rewrite Our Story

I’m so excited to celebrate Easter with my family this weekend.  Frankly, I’m excited for any excuse to get to spend time with my family. When I look at everything that goes on in my life, all the experiences I’ve gotten to have, all the amazing people I’ve gotten to interact with, all the places […]

Some Things Are Just Going To Have To Wait

It’s a pretty terrible feeling when you realize that you’ve waited too long to order your Christmas gifts and even with the beloved Amazon Prime account you still won’t be able to have all your gifts delivered in time. How has this month gone by so fast already?!  I’ve still got so much to get […]

Kindness Is Free. Sprinkle That Stuff Everywhere

“The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.” -Oscar Wilde I was in the airport when I saw her – a young mother with her small baby strapped to her chest in a carrier and her little two year old boy by her side with a car seat in one hand […]

Thank You For Your Service

November 11th is US holiday dedicated to honoring military veterans and celebrating their service. And I believe its also a day we should honor and celebrate the families of the veterans who are as much the heroes as those who serve. I am so grateful to veterans and their families for affording me a great nation of freedom […]

For A Seed To Achieve Greatness It Must Come Completely Undone

“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 […]

Pain Is Weakness Leaving The Body

Yesterday, July 24th , we celebrated Pioneer Day (which is a state holiday in Utah). For those of you not familiar with Pioneer Day it commemorates the evens of July 24, 1847 when Brigham Young and the first group of Mormon Pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley after making the nearly 1,300 mile trek […]

Life’s Little Instructions

“Life’s Little Instructions -Every so often you push your luck. -Never underestimate the power of a kind word or deed. -Never give up on anybody — miracles happen every day. -Become the most positive and enthusiastic person you know. -Learn to listen. -Think big thoughts, but relish small pleasures. -Don’t expect others to listen to […]

When Life Throws You A Curveball

The last several months life has thrown me some major curveballs that I frankly never saw coming, and those curveballs have caused me to have to deal with things I never expected to go through. As each of them hit I felt completely unprepared to deal with the mix of emotions hitting me all at […]

Creating A Day Worth Living

Life can sometimes seem ridiculously complicated. And trying to find peace amidst the chaos day to day often feels a bit impossible. So what makes for a peaceful day? If the only way to have a peaceful day is to have a day where everything goes perfectly then the chance of us ever having a […]

Living a life of fulfillment

Today I was honored to introduce one of my personal heroes, Alan Hall, for a speech he gave at Utah Valley University’s Executive Lecture Series. Alan Hall is someone I have had the honor of knowing for many years and he has been a significant influence in my life and is an incredible example to […]

It’s not distance that keeps people apart; it’s a lack of communication

Communicating in relationships (whether at work, at home, or with friends) isn’t easy…in fact it takes a lot more effort to communicate with the other person then it does to avoid communicating, because communicating takes WO-ORK!  Yet what may have appeared easier (avoiding communicating) in the moment, will prove to have made your life far […]

Strength comes from overcoming obstacles

There are a lot of times in life we question why we have to go through really hard times. Years ago someone shared this story with me. I have probably shared this before with all of you but it just seemed like it was worth sharing it again today: Parable of the Butterfly A man […]

You never realize how little self-control you have until…

“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 […]

Do Parents Have Favorite Children?

I have two children, a 24 year old son and a 21 year old daughter. They are the best of friends until it comes to one particular argument that they have been having for the last 19 years since they were both old enough to debate it….who is Mom’s favorite child? And regardless of how […]

A quiet conscience makes one strong

“How noble and good everyone could be if, every evening before falling asleep, they were to recall to their minds the events of the whole day and consider exactly what has been good and bad. Then, without realizing it you try to improve yourself at the start of each new day; of course, you achieve […]

Spring Cleaning For The Soul

Sunshine, warm weather, birds chirping…I LOVE Springtime and for the first time all year we have finally gotten warm, spring weather here and that just makes me HAPPY!  However, with the warm weather finally beginning I am reminded that it is also time to do our Spring Cleaning! And the truth is that I don’t […]