MORE ABOUT AN IMPORTANT SUBJECT--LOVE!

 LOVE: The measure of our love is the measure

             of the greatness of our souls. Joseph B. Wirthlin

 

Joseph B. Wirthlin was a beloved religious leader for many years in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  One year in the Church's annual General Conference in Salt Lake City, he gave a really thought- provoking talk about the Great Commandment, which is first to love God, then love our neighbor as ourselves.

 He reminded us Joseph Smith taught, "Whoever is filled with the love of God, that person will not be content to take care of his family only.  He—and she—will be busy with taking care of others wherever they go."

 In doing those simple acts of love for others we are fulfilling the second part of the Great Commandment to love our neighbor.  That is how we fulfill the law of Christ, by bearing one another’s burdens, because both commandments are necessary.

 Elder Wirthlin said, “Love is the beginning, the middle, and the end of the pathway of discipleship.  It comforts, counsels, cures, and consoles.  It leads us through valleys of darkness and through the veil of death.  In the end love leads us to the glory and grandeur of eternal life.”

 It is interesting to note that the greatest love is not the dramatic kind with which poets and writers have filled volumes.  Instead, it is the everyday simple acts of kindness and caring we have the opportunity to bestow along our daily path. 

 A popular television series when I was growing up was “Father Knows Best”.  I didn’t particularly like Kathy, the youngest of the three children in the TV family, but one episode featuring her character has remained in my memory as a prod to "do those little things” that just might make someone else’s day.

 The plot of that particular episode centered on the elderly school janitor who was retiring.  In it he was honored for his service to the elementary school and was given an opportunity to say a few words at his farewell celebration.  He said that one student had done something for him that meant more to him than anything else.  Everyone in the school audience was buzzing back and forth with each other trying to remember ANY interaction they had had with this old gentleman—other than just treating him as the janitor.  Several of them were sure it was something they had done but come to find out it was Kathy.  She had done something so simple, she didn’t even remember she had done it.  Kathy had offered the janitor a piece of gum.  That was it, nothing more!

 One of “life’s little rules” is to complement three people every day.   Good advice, so I determined I would try to make three compliments each flight when I was a flight attendant with United Airlines.   When I did, what a difference it made to most of the people.  They looked up, smiled, and were genuinely pleased someone noticed them.  I am not suggesting that three compliments are equal to ministering to the sick, giving food and drink to the hungry, visiting those in prison, or giving succor to the weak, I’m just saying we never know what “little thing” may make a difference in someone’s life.   And don’t forget, your family is still your most important neighbor. Don’t leave them out of your loop of caring.  Sometimes they need it more than anyone else you might know.

 We have great examples all around us of people who love and are "loving”, Christ being the foremost through His Atonement.  

Can you remember a time in your life when someone loved you, in spite of your mistakes, in spite of your shortcomings?   Stretch yourself to become like the person who “succored” you. 

Think often on this last reminder about the important subject of love__

"Love is the key to happiness in this life…It is the one trait that, if developed, will most improve our lives.”

I sincerely believe this is true.  keep LOVE alive all year long--not just in February!

SIX-WORD MEMOIRS ON LOVE

 

SIX-WORD MEMOIRS ON LOVE         

     

  Several years ago, I read a book edited 

by Rachel Fershleiser and Larry Smith.

Six-Word Memoirs on Love & Heartbreak 

by Writers Famous  & Obscure:   Love boiled down to just six words.    

Here are some samples from the book:

“One diamond necklace later, I’m single.”  Michael Collins

“Wonder-filled, and never a dull torment.”  Diane Ackerman

Never one to ignore a challenge, here are some chapters of my love story each in six *pithy words. 

               (*Pithy is a term I became familiar with in my college English                                 composition classes.)

That smile—no guile—stayed awhile.                 

Love letters in sand, washed away.

I was his.  He was mine.                                         

May date—but we couldn’t wait!

Love, marriage, then a baby carriage.                

Love came my way.  Didn’t stay.

Good looking.  Good timing.  Good grief!           

Two hearts as one—now broken.

Hugs, kisses, laughs, wishes.  Over.   Out.             

Soul mates!  Cell mates?  One escaped. 

      

           Even when love hurts, succinctness tells it all.

NOTE:  

I wrote this around the time my first husband left the family.  One of our

 children had died.  He and I grieved differently.  Finally, it was easier

 for him to go find a new life than it was to pick up the pieces of the old

 one.  We had been married 29 years...experienced birth, life, and death

 together.  It was unthinkable that after all our love and unity as a

 couple, we could not sustain that relationship.  It devastated me.  But I

 still remember with fondness of our time together lo, those many years

 ago.

And LIFE goes on....

THE MAGIC OF BOOKS

 

A book is the only place in which you can examine a fragile thought without breaking it or explore a dangerous idea without fearing it will go off in your face.  It is one of the few sources left where information is served up without the silent black noise of a headline or the hullabaloo of a commercial.  It is one of the few havens remaining where a man’s mind can get both provocation and privacy.                                                                                                         Edward P. Morgan

 I loved the Reader’s Digest magazine.  “An article a day of lasting interest.”  I read it at home from cover to cover from the time I was a little kid.  Then in the 7^th grade, each student got an issue every month to study in one of our classes at school.  Plus, I learned a lot of vocabulary by taking the word test every month.  It used to have 20 words in the quiz. As the years went by, that dwindled to 18, then maybe 15.  Then a few years ago, the Reader's Digest quietly went out of my life.  I still miss it and think often when I am in certain situations how my perception of something, or a nugget of information was gleaned by those articles I read lo, those many years ago! 

In several of their monthly features, the Reader's Digest advertised that they would pay for the first submission of a published item.  I had read the above quote in an issue of Ball Corporation's glossy company magazine, which came to my husband as their employee. I love books, so the quote resonated with me. I promptly sent it to the Reader’s Digest for their monthly feature “Points to Ponder”.   Anyway, I thought it was an exceptional point of view.  Apparently so did the RD editors. 

Imagine my surprise when I received the following correspondence in the mail a few weeks later:

January 22, 1979

 Dear Ms. Nichols:

We’re pleased to enclose our check for $35 in appreciation to you for sending us the attached item, scheduled to appear on page 220 of the February [1979 Reader’s] Digest.            

 Sincerely yours,

Catherine Conklin

WOW!!  I had been "published"!  It was a pretty heady feeling for quite a while and totally cemented my devotion to the Reader's Digest for the rest of my life. 

                   

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2026!

 

January 2026

I have always loved the hymn “Ring Out Wild Bells” which is in our current Latter-day Saint hymnal.  It is based on one of Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s 131 short poems in a longer work titled “In Memoriam”.  Tennyson wrote the long poem over a period of 14 years as he worked through the grief of losing his close friend who died when they were in their early 20’s.

Tennyson sometimes referred to his own long poem by the subtitle, “The Progress of the Soul,” because it describes the steps by which his intense personal grief finally brought him to greater compassion and spiritual sensitivity. 

“Ring Out Wild Bells”, was one of the poems from this long work mentioned above.  Tennyson was determined to leave behind the disappointment and narrow vision of the grief-filled past he had been living in.  This phrase from the poem “the larger heart, the kindlier hand,” indicates his ability to finally reach outward to others and extend himself in good works to those around him.

One of the reasons I like this particular hymn is that it is written in a minor key which, in a way, reflects Tennyson’s sadness and sorrow.  But the final line of the hymn, “Ring in the Christ that is to be,” asks us to rise to the full stature of Christ within ourselves as the very last note of the hymn ends in a major key.

I just find that positive ending such an uplift in a new year with fresh prospects and opportunities to do greater things and to be better people as we become the light that draws other people to Christ through our example.

I invite you, and me also, to make this verse from Matthew one of our goals for 2026.

Matthew 5:16 “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

HAPPY  NEW  YEAR  2026 !

Note:  Alfred, Lord Tennyson is probably the best known of the English Victorian poets in the 1800’s.  We readily recognize this famous quote of his which is also from the same poem “In Memoriam”.                   

 ”Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Every December we celebrate a birth that happened more than 2,000 years ago because it was the beginning of a life and mission that hold critical and eternal significance for all of us.  It was the birth of Jesus Christ which manifested the supreme love of God for all His children.

                                 

In a recent Devotional Meeting at Brigham Young University, newly called counselor to President Dallin H. Oaks in the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, President D. Todd Christofferson, spoke about the Savior’s condescension to leave His divine throne above and live like every other mortal on the very earth which He helped God the Father create.

“It is almost impossible to grasp the magnitude of the Savior’s condescension”, President Christofferson said in his remarks.

“He came as a helpless babe, born in a humble stable, with a manger used for feeding animals as His cradle. He experienced what all of us experience: growing over time in knowledge and ability, developing from infancy to childhood to youth to adulthood.  While on the earth as a mortal man, Jesus experienced hunger and deprivation, pain and fatigue, persecution and rejection. In the end, He was crucified and put to death.

 “We are fully justified in joyously celebrating the birth of Jesus. It is this tender beginning that eventually led to His Atonement, which, in turn, leads to the new beginnings in our lives and faithfulness to the end of our lives.”

No wonder we sing “Joy to the World"!

"Joy to the World" was written in 1719 by the English minister and hymnist Isaac Watts.  The hymn is usually sung to an 1848 arrangement by the American composer Lowell Mason of a tune attributed to George Frideric Handel. The hymn's lyrics are a Christian interpretation of Psalm 98 and Genesis 3.

Since the 20th century, "Joy to the World" has been the most-published Christmas carol in North America, even though it originally was unassociated with Christmas.  It was initially written about the Second Coming, not Christ’s first coming as a baby.

But I love how W. W. Phelps, a poet and early member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, changed the words in the chorus from “Let heaven and Nature Sing” to “Let Saints and Angels Sing”. We sing this version at Church.

I believe we were all in that numberless throng of angels proclaiming joy at the birth of Jesus Christ and His mission on that “ONE WONDERFUL NIGHT”!

This December let us include in our celebration of Christmas, not just Christ’s birth, but also a re-consideration of Christ’s remarkable atoning mission as a new beginning in our own lives with a fervent personal commitment of faithfulness to Jesus Christ forever.

                                     Merry Christmas!

SHOPPING NEWS!

 

We got a "new" Walmart!

After months of renovation and lots of rearranging, our "new" Walmart is finally finished!  Complete with a shiny new Walmart logo on the front of the store.  There is also a new expanded Pick-up area, a refurbished parking lot, and wider aisles.  In all, it is a nicer shopping place.  So far, the prices seem to have remained steady to what they were before the do-over.

This is the Walmart we most often went to--until the shelves seemed to be empty of what it was I needed and I didn't want to be around hammering inside and lots of activity outside which was the center of the remodeling operation.  Or sometimes it was the frustration of "store open during remodel" but whole departments seemed to have disappeared, and the store didn't feel like it was easy to navigate like it had been before.  I couldn't find anything.  All the paper goods disappeared!  Then I found out they were on the back wall where the infant department had been.  No wonder I hadn't been able to find a cute little play toy to put on the package of a baby gift I was preparing to take to a friend.

But all that is over now.  Surprisingly, for all the work that was accomplished and the amount of time it took to complete, it really wasn't very long at all.  From summertime to the first part of November.

Though I still am trying to navigate better as I look for the items I usually purchase, I like the addition of pods that have "showroom setups" complete with mannequins and furniture to make the products attractive and inviting to try.  And the shelves are filled to the brim with inventory now like they used to be.

Though it is still kind of a shock to go inside the store and see a completely different look, I like it.  Several of the other Walmart stores in our area got remodeled first, so it was nice to be part of the plan, too.

Progress... move forward or lose your place!  Guess we have a place in the community once again.  Just nicer.

VETERANS DAY

Today is Veterans Day 2025

I'm inviting you to honor our Veterans today because they have defended the principles of freedom with courage and blood and quiet, unheralded sacrifice.

As Americans, we love the United States, our country—not because it is flawless, but because it was founded upon principles of liberty that go directly to heaven itself—and there is a striving within the TRUE heart of our nation to adhere to those principles.

I took these thoughts from many, many things I have read about Veterans Day, but they are also MY thoughts. I hope they are YOURS, too. 

TODAY AND ALWAYS!