I'm grateful for motivation. The opportunity to actually perform on the electric bass has come my way, so now I am motivated to practice. I think I can do it, and I know it will be fun. Also, my SIL, Molly, has embarked on a new career as a personal trainer (which she will rock at). She is starting a free, 30-day workout challenge that will begin December 1st. I'm grateful to have something to keep me on track with my fitness goals. It's so easy to be lazy with no immediate goals in sight.
There's something I'm grateful for today, but in a backhanded way. I said something to someone today in a really Mean Girl kind of way, and I am so, so embarrassed and mad at myself for doing that. I hate when who I know I should be and who I really am are so obviously mismatched. As mortifying and humbling as it is, I am grateful to get slapped in the face, metaphorically speaking. I'm grateful every day that all of us can change and be better.
Showing posts with label gratitude. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gratitude. Show all posts
Monday, November 18, 2013
Sunday, November 10, 2013
I Love It When a Plan Comes Together
Tonight, I am so very grateful for the Young Women's program, and particularly for the people I work with in our YW.
I wanted our Young Women in Excellence program to be low-key this year, but with great content. Most of our girls are very busy during the week, so Sunday night seemed like the best time to get the maximum number of people together. I wanted good talks, maybe a musical number, and refreshments. One of my girls suggested that each girl put up a display of the things they are doing, maybe using shoes to tie in the theme of "Stand Ye in Holy Places".
So that's what we did. The speakers were phenomenal. The musical number came off well. The girls put up good displays. We had delicious cupcakes. I've tried to write a coherent paragraph with details, but I can't. Just know that it was great, and I am so very grateful for how wonderful the YW program is, and on a grander scale, how wonderful the gospel is and that those things are in my life.
I wanted our Young Women in Excellence program to be low-key this year, but with great content. Most of our girls are very busy during the week, so Sunday night seemed like the best time to get the maximum number of people together. I wanted good talks, maybe a musical number, and refreshments. One of my girls suggested that each girl put up a display of the things they are doing, maybe using shoes to tie in the theme of "Stand Ye in Holy Places".
So that's what we did. The speakers were phenomenal. The musical number came off well. The girls put up good displays. We had delicious cupcakes. I've tried to write a coherent paragraph with details, but I can't. Just know that it was great, and I am so very grateful for how wonderful the YW program is, and on a grander scale, how wonderful the gospel is and that those things are in my life.
Nine and Part of Ten
Yesterday, I was grateful to be able to go to the temple. Grateful that it is so close, than I'm worthy to go, and just the fact that there are temples on the earth and the authority to administer the covenants that are made there.
Last week, I was at Chipotle, and the guy right behind me in line at the cash register leaned over and said, "I'm LDS, too." Wha? How? He had seen my temple recommend in my wallet as I was paying. He thought that it was really cool to see another LDS person out and about in the wide world. It is cool to know that there are many, many, many other people who believe as I do, who are doing what they can to be worthy of temple blessings.
Today, I am grateful that Rowdy made it almost two years before having a Crohn's flare. He woke up at 4:30 with some issues. He's hanging in there and being strong. I wish that I could do something to help take his pain away and make the flare stop.
Last week, I was at Chipotle, and the guy right behind me in line at the cash register leaned over and said, "I'm LDS, too." Wha? How? He had seen my temple recommend in my wallet as I was paying. He thought that it was really cool to see another LDS person out and about in the wide world. It is cool to know that there are many, many, many other people who believe as I do, who are doing what they can to be worthy of temple blessings.
Today, I am grateful that Rowdy made it almost two years before having a Crohn's flare. He woke up at 4:30 with some issues. He's hanging in there and being strong. I wish that I could do something to help take his pain away and make the flare stop.
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Grateful Days
Little things that I am grateful for today:
Cell phones, to be able to keep in touch with Rowdy while he's away at a pistol competition.
A healthy body that can run, a pretty pathway to run on, podcasts to make the time go faster and good weather.
That lady that I always see running around Lake Murray with a big smile on her face. Okay, she looks a little cray-cray, but she's having a good time. It makes me smile and enjoy my run more, too.
Rowdy's Granny, who always had candy at her house. Some people have a candy drawer. She had a candy ROOM. It was a bedroom that had stuff stashed everywhere--dresser drawers, the closet, maybe even under the mattress. I don't know. I saw boxes of thin mints and cordial cherries at Dollar Tree that reminded me of her today. The thing is, they have to be properly stale to really taste good. These boxes will not be properly aged for a few more years.
And speaking of grandparents, my great-uncle Hubert passed away last week at 94. After reading his obituary, I went to Google Maps to find the church house in Pocatello, Idaho, where they will be holding his funeral. Then I followed the map to my grandpa and grandma Dahlstrom's, then "walked" the few blocks to Grandma Bright's, then down the street and around the corner to Great-grandma Dahlstrom's. My grandmas were different in personality from each other (and "different" in some ways, I guess), but they were loving and I am very grateful for them and for the ways they loved and shaped me. Grandma Dahlstrom's house smelled clean and fresh. Toast with really good butter on it, buttered popcorn and a Coke, lilacs, rose bushes and crossword puzzles make me think of her. Grandma Bright's house smelled like baking. Quilts, delicious baked goods, pancakes with bacon in them, rooms with lots of beds for the grandkids to have slumber parties in, temple work and service make me think of her. Great-grandma's house doesn't have a particular smell memory for me, but she was definitely the type of grandma who had a big clump of ribbon candy in a bowl in her living room. She had kind of a high, reedy voice, and she was very gentle.
One more bowl of chicken rice soup for breakfast.
The love of education, which is making a little thought brew in the back of my mind. I'm starting to think about perhaps getting a Master of Health Administration degree. I have no desire to be a hospital administrator (they are the devil and nobody likes them), but I'm interested in what is going on in healthcare these days. Sometimes people (patients, friends) say things that come from frustration, illness and misinformation. I'd like to be able to really understand the issues and the system to be able to at least try to educate them.
The glorious feedback loop that comes from expressing gratitude for all of the things that God has given us.
And here's Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Apostles to tell us more:
Cell phones, to be able to keep in touch with Rowdy while he's away at a pistol competition.
A healthy body that can run, a pretty pathway to run on, podcasts to make the time go faster and good weather.
That lady that I always see running around Lake Murray with a big smile on her face. Okay, she looks a little cray-cray, but she's having a good time. It makes me smile and enjoy my run more, too.
Rowdy's Granny, who always had candy at her house. Some people have a candy drawer. She had a candy ROOM. It was a bedroom that had stuff stashed everywhere--dresser drawers, the closet, maybe even under the mattress. I don't know. I saw boxes of thin mints and cordial cherries at Dollar Tree that reminded me of her today. The thing is, they have to be properly stale to really taste good. These boxes will not be properly aged for a few more years.
And speaking of grandparents, my great-uncle Hubert passed away last week at 94. After reading his obituary, I went to Google Maps to find the church house in Pocatello, Idaho, where they will be holding his funeral. Then I followed the map to my grandpa and grandma Dahlstrom's, then "walked" the few blocks to Grandma Bright's, then down the street and around the corner to Great-grandma Dahlstrom's. My grandmas were different in personality from each other (and "different" in some ways, I guess), but they were loving and I am very grateful for them and for the ways they loved and shaped me. Grandma Dahlstrom's house smelled clean and fresh. Toast with really good butter on it, buttered popcorn and a Coke, lilacs, rose bushes and crossword puzzles make me think of her. Grandma Bright's house smelled like baking. Quilts, delicious baked goods, pancakes with bacon in them, rooms with lots of beds for the grandkids to have slumber parties in, temple work and service make me think of her. Great-grandma's house doesn't have a particular smell memory for me, but she was definitely the type of grandma who had a big clump of ribbon candy in a bowl in her living room. She had kind of a high, reedy voice, and she was very gentle.
One more bowl of chicken rice soup for breakfast.
The love of education, which is making a little thought brew in the back of my mind. I'm starting to think about perhaps getting a Master of Health Administration degree. I have no desire to be a hospital administrator (they are the devil and nobody likes them), but I'm interested in what is going on in healthcare these days. Sometimes people (patients, friends) say things that come from frustration, illness and misinformation. I'd like to be able to really understand the issues and the system to be able to at least try to educate them.
The glorious feedback loop that comes from expressing gratitude for all of the things that God has given us.
And here's Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Apostles to tell us more:
Thanks, Elder Nelson!
Friday, November 1, 2013
Gratitude Month, Day One
So, today is the first of November, and time to blog daily about the things for which I am grateful. Here's a somewhat novel one for my first entry:
Patience.
Last month's YW topic was "Becoming More Christlike". Interestingly, one of the weekly lessons was titled, "How can I become more patient?" Perhaps I hadn't realized the importance of patience as a Godly quality. But after all, how in the world would God be able to deal with us and our whining and complaining without perfect patience?
I think that I can be pretty patient overall, but I have been trying to improve over the past week. Of course, since I was trying to improve, I felt very tested. The last two days at work were particularly trying. What I found was that my day went much more smoothly, no matter what was happening, when I was working hard to exercise patience. Who knew?
Please enjoy this terrific, short video with President Dieter F. Uchtdorf. Would you be the kid who at the marshmallow right away, or would you wait? I think that I was a pretty obedient child, and I don't really like marshmallows. I'm pretty good at delayed gratification.
Patience.
Last month's YW topic was "Becoming More Christlike". Interestingly, one of the weekly lessons was titled, "How can I become more patient?" Perhaps I hadn't realized the importance of patience as a Godly quality. But after all, how in the world would God be able to deal with us and our whining and complaining without perfect patience?
I think that I can be pretty patient overall, but I have been trying to improve over the past week. Of course, since I was trying to improve, I felt very tested. The last two days at work were particularly trying. What I found was that my day went much more smoothly, no matter what was happening, when I was working hard to exercise patience. Who knew?
Please enjoy this terrific, short video with President Dieter F. Uchtdorf. Would you be the kid who at the marshmallow right away, or would you wait? I think that I was a pretty obedient child, and I don't really like marshmallows. I'm pretty good at delayed gratification.
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