Peculiar & Co.Sorrow prepares you for joy. It violently sweeps everything out of your house, so that new joy can find space to enter. It shakes the yellow leaves from the bough of your heart, so that fresh, green leaves can grow in their place. It pulls up the rotten roots so that new roots hidden beneath […]
A few years ago, Mom announced that she didn’t want any laughter at her funeral. I was a little puzzled by this. I’ve never been very good at the no laughter thing, so this seemed a little odd to me. Did she intend for everyone to wear black, for the ladies to pull dramatic black […]
I’ve heard some lament about the arbitrary nature of the New Year when, really, nothing is different than it was before the clock struck midnight. We wake up the first day of the new year the way we did the last day of the old year. We watch the ball drop in New York and […]
Stones worn smooth by timeless currents, Nameless rocks in common streams, Eroded grains of pebbled sameness Weakly lit by shadowed gleams. Time’s the stream to smooth our roughness, Polish struggle, burnish pain, ‘Till ripple-washed, esteemed and glist’ning, Sun-bright temple stones remain. {Donna Hilton Gardner}
This talk was delivered by me to our church congregation in July of 2019 as my daughter Tess and I stayed in Katy, Texas. She was receiving treatment for cancer at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. I was asked to speak on the theme “How the Priesthood Has Strengthened Me Through Trials.” To clear up […]
Sometimes, when I would be fiddling around on the computer I would stop a moment and head to Google. I would plug the words “who is my biological mother” into the empty information field and click “search”. I would always chuckle to myself and shake my head as if to say “Silly girl. It’s not […]
“Suddenly all my ancestors are behind me. “Be still,” they say. “Watch and listen. You are the result of the love of thousands.”
Today my daughter flew across the pacific to a new place filled with new people and the unexpected. Just little her in the big blue, taking her message to whoever will have it. I love her and I miss her. Today I found someone. I think I found her. THE her. The “her”. The one […]
1. Chicken pot pie. 2. An unexpected short work day. Makes me feel like I am getting away with something! 3. Walking with a good friend while getting some “therapy” chatting in. 4. Attending the temple with my husband and daughter last night. So surreal. 5. Pajama day tomorrow! (aka day off.)
Six years. It has now been six years. Six years today. Six years this very day. Six years since I chose life instead of a bitter ending. I’m six years better and six years bolder. Six years wiser. Six years grayer. Six years more wrinkly. Six years and my lap is softer, my curves are […]
Peculiar & Co. 