March 5, 2010, is the day our son Jonathan passed away. As a family, we like to honor him on March 5th  by doing something nice for somebody else. Jonathan was always going out of his way to help others; he was very kind and had a heart of gold. “March Forward Today with Kindness” is now my motto to remember to be kind every day of the year as I reflect on my son Jonathan’s life.

I believe anxiety can be reduced and/or eliminated by using these five “remedies” each day. The act of being proactive spiritually, physically, mentally, emotionally, and socially every day can transform your life. Using one of these “remedies” is good. Using all five is best!

I hope in 2024 that we will all make our physical health our number one priority. Of course, taking care of our spiritual health with prayer, scripture reading, and journal writing is a close second, but a healthy spirit inside an unhealthy body cannot do much. My new motto is:

“Take care of my body first. Take care of my spirit second. Take care of others third.”

September 10th is National Suicide Prevention Day. I hope as Fall marches quickly into our busy lives, we will pause sometime this month and think about those whom we know who were so depressed that they took their own lives. Please reach out to the loved ones of these individuals on these sad anniversaries—it is always nice to know that others care and remember our loss. “Strength comes in numbers” is an old saying, but it still applies today in both joy and pain.

I now understand that we must love ourselves first if we want to feel God’s love for us. Our negative thoughts and feelings towards ourselves trap us in a dark cave where the sunlight of God’s love cannot penetrate. We must crawl out of the cave by loving ourselves and trusting that God’s love and sunlight will be there waiting for us. I promise it will be!

Yes, our Heavenly Father and Savior know us by name. They care about our worries, fears, anxieties, problems, and concerns. The scriptures proclaim Their promises to always be there for us and for our loved ones. We can’t give up on others. We can’t give up on ourselves. We must always “wait until July” arrives. 

On Mother's Day, I started reading some quotes about love, kindness, and mothering. After reading all these inspiring, thought-provoking quotations, some words came flowing into my mind that I quickly wrote down. I decided to put my own quotation at the beginning of this compilation. I shared these quotes with my family that day. Now, I'm sharing them with you!

I would like to share a recent “little miracle” that began in my life on Tuesday, February 28, 2023, and it is still reverberating in my soul today. I rarely get answers to prayers that come so quickly or that come in such a miraculous way. I was amazed! This was truly an “extraordinary event” and a “work of God.” Indeed, it was a tender mercy and miracle for me!

One of my favorite hymns is “I Know That My Redeemer Lives.” I listen to it almost every morning while I fix breakfast. The words and music help me to re-center my life on the Savior. No matter how I wake up feeling that morning, no matter how I might have slept the night before, no matter what is on my to-do list for the day, I feel a little bit more energized and a little bit happier when I listen to this hymn!

I recently found some words that Jonathan had hurriedly written on a piece of paper, which had been torn out of a spiral notebook. It read like a poem, so I typed it up. I feel that his message is profound because it is obviously written from his own perspective of being knocked to the ground so many times in his life. I have entitled the poem, “Failure?”

On February 3, 2023, David and I became great-grandparents to a beautiful new baby—a boy! He was born in the same Provo, Utah hospital where we had our own first beautiful baby—a girl—almost fifty years earlier! She was born on February 10, 1973. We feel that we have now gone full circle in the cycle of life!

I read the book, Man’s Search for Meaning, by Viktor Frankl, the first time about 30 years ago, and it was life-changing back then. I found it on Audible a few weeks ago, and it has been even more life-changing this time as I listened to the power and truth in each chapter! I didn’t understand it all when I first read it, but with my many years of growth experiences, I understand his philosophy much better! This year, I wished my family a “HAPPY NEW LIFE” because I believe reading this book and applying its true principles will change their lives as much as it has mine.