GRATITUDE IN APRIL

 

I am a murmurer.  A glass half empty kind of a person.  Always some kind of complaint which has been the fuel to help me take care of the task at hand, especially the ones I didn’t want to do.  It also seems that has been a recognizable trait of mine for a long time.

A specific example of this happened several years ago when my first husband and I had been talking about pioneer experiences from our family history.  He said he wished he could have been a pioneer, citing several examples to support his statement:  the adventure of stepping into the unknown, being out in the desert free from crowds of people, solving logistical challenges in the wagon train, etc.  You get the picture. 

That all sounded like a lot of hard, hot, and thankless work to me.  Ever the realist, I said to him, “Ross, you could never have been a pioneer!  You have to have a shower every day.”  He just replied in his real-life mechanical engineering thought process way, “I would have rigged something up and made a shower!”  My exasperated reply spelled out the truth of the West.  “But there was NO water even in the best of circumstances!”  Then I continued, “Is all I know is that I could NEVER have been a pioneer!”

Then came the statement which evidenced the truth of my whole personality as a murmurer.  Ross said, “Oh, yes, you COULD have been a pioneer—if you had been able to complain every step of the way!”

Spot on!  Both of us dissolved into laughter.  That was a true proclamation and a testament as to how well he knew me. 

Not long ago I saw a table-top decoration that made me pay attention to and rethink some of the complaints with which I had peppered my daily life.  On one side of the chart framed in the shape of a house were many of the things I spent a lifetime complaining about as I went all over the place taking care of my family. On the other side of the chart were the blessings I experienced which had necessitated the responsibilities on the first list.

 

   A house to clean                          A safe place to live

   Early Wakeups                                                     Children to love

   Laundry to do                           Clothes to wear

   Dirty dishes                                                            Food to eat

  Crumbs under the table                  Family meals

   Shopping to do                                                        Money to use

                          Lots of noise                                A house full of people

Had my existence really been so hollow that I had found no satisfaction in the care of my family? No!  I had loved being a wife and mother!  But I’m sure I hadn’t sounded like it sometimes. 

 

In the April 2014 General Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf gave a powerful sermon about gratitude. 

He said, “Could I suggest that we see gratitude as a disposition, a way of life that stands independent of our current situation? In other words, I’m suggesting that instead of being thankful for things, we focus on being thankful in our circumstances—whatever they may be.

The choice is ours. We can choose to limit our gratitude, based on the blessings we feel we lack. ….We can choose to be like the Mormon pioneers, who maintained a spirit of gratitude during their slow and painful trek toward the Great Salt Lake, even singing and dancing and glorying in the goodness of God. Many of us would have been inclined to withdraw, complain, and agonize about the difficulty of the journey.  (THAT would have been me!)

We can choose to be grateful, no matter what. This type of gratitude transcends whatever is happening around us. It surpasses disappointment, discouragement, and despair. It blooms just as beautifully in the icy landscape of winter as it does in the pleasant warmth of summer.”

Okay, I didn’t complain ALL of the time.  But I’m sure there were times I surely made others uncomfortable in how I expressed myself when I had many responsibilities and so little time to take care of them and everything else, too.  I didn’t do a very good job of being thankful IN my circumstances.

I know it is April and not November, yet GRATITUDE is a subject that is always relevant.  I remember when I heard this talk, I was aware that I needed to make some changes.  Perhaps I did make some.  Now I need to make some more as I hear myself murmuring a lot!

So, I have committed to quit complaining and be grateful—no matter what is going on in my life!

And I invite you to examine your own gratitude scale and see where you might need some improvement, too.  We can do this!

                                                                                 

EASTER--NOW AND THEN...

 Yesterday was Easter.  

It was a very quiet day--just my husband and me.  We watched the televised General Conference broadcast for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and took Easter greetings to the nine women in my congregation to whom I minister and to the recent widow who lives across the street.  

Our Easter dinner was toasted cheese sandwiches.  Nice and simple but totally lacking in the spirit of Easter celebration I had participated in or organized for over seven decades.  Truthfully, though it was a spiritual day, it seemed lacking when it came to the CELEBRATION part.  I longed for the family dinner and the cheery association with parents, children and grandchildren as I remember, not only as a kid, but as an adult and parent and grandparent in my own right.  

This is an article I wrote for the Newsletter I wrote for my children over a ten-year period.  The Nichols Family News was compiled of memories garnered from journals, conversations, and printed pieces from all kinds of sources.  It is still good reading.  And I hope my posterity finds some interest in those ten years of effort which I so immensely enjoyed compiling.

This piece is a look into some self-introspection on my part.  I wrote it in April 2011.

                                                              

 EASTER

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        I loved Easter as a kid!  I especially liked it when it was at its very latest—like it is this year, the fourth Sunday in April.  By the end of April maybe—just maybe, we hoped—the weather might be a little milder in Wyoming, and it would seem like a “real” spring holiday.  The only “Spring Break” we had was Good Friday, which everybody got out of school to celebrate.  When I was in junior high and high school, we also had no school on Easter Monday.  So, we had a four-day weekend for a spring break.  That’s the main reason I liked Easter to be the latest date possible.  I wanted it to be fairly good weather during that precious long weekend.

Plenty of years we wore our new lightweight and gauzy Easter dresses and new patent leather shoes to Church in snow.  Or else it was so chilly we had to wear heavy coats over our frilly new dresses.  Back then, dressing up for Easter Sunday was a big deal.  We saw people at Church who never darkened the door any other time of the year, except Christmas, who came to show off their Easter finery.  We always had Easter baskets, dyed eggs, and generally enjoyed the secular aspects of celebrating the end of winter.  We didn’t think too much about celebrating Easter the way true Saints celebrate the Atonement and Resurrection of Christ.  Frankly, I was confused about the relationship between all the Easter stuff we did and Christ’s death and resurrection.

It didn’t occur to me until Harold and Brice were little, that I should be teaching my children that Easter was an occasion for gratitude.  Because of Christ, not only would we all be resurrected but through his atonement we could be forgiven, be comforted, and be succored in any way we needed. So, I began to separate the fun, worldly aspects of Easter from the more reverent celebration of the end of Christ’s earthly ministry.  Along with the Easter decorations, I tacked up a little verse on the kitchen door of the Welch Court house which outlined Christ’s resurrection making it possible for all of us to live again.  I would repeat it to Harold and Brice, and then when I would ask them why we celebrated Easter, they would parrot back to me that Jesus died so we could live again.  We saved the Easter egg hunt, the sugar-cookie making, and dying eggs for the day after Easter until they began school, then we moved that part back to Saturday.  (It was during that time Ross fashioned the huge egg cookie cutter we used for years. I still have it.) The FHE before Easter I always gave the lesson about Easter customs and what eggs, bunnies, lambs, new clothes, etc. have to do with the celebration of Easter anyway. That prepared us to make Easter Sunday a special occasion. 

I used to make sure everyone had something new to wear until I don’t remember when that wasn’t important anymore.  But, there were years I even made the clothes myself.  There are pictures of Harold and Brice in new outfits I made.  And, maybe Burgandy remembers the blue and white polka dot dress with a blue and white pinstripe pinafore I made her.  She also had a cute white straw hat to wear with the dress.

I have a lot of great memories of Easter over the last six-plus decades.  There are boxes in the basement still full of Easter stuff from Berlin and lots of doodads I have bought and collected through the years for our own Nichols Family Easter celebrations.  And, I would hazard a guess that there are about two-hundred plastic eggs that would make for a really GRAND Easter egg hunt.  So, if you’re ever around….

ANSWERS TO PERTINENT QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR HEALTH YOU SHOULD PROBABLY BE AWARE OF...

 

   

AS PART OF MY AETNA HEALTH INSURANCE POLICY, I HAVE TO HAVE AN IN-HOME HEALTH SCREENING ONCE A YEAR.

I had mine for 2026 last week.  It was the same old, same old questions Medicare insists the health-care professional asks each time about how I am getting along in life--balance, diet, exercise, blah blah blah blah blah!  Wouldn't it be kind of refreshing if just once the exam went something like this and I was asking the questions?

Anyway, I read this little "funny" somewhere years ago and kept it for a good laugh now and then.  I hope it kind of tickles you, too.    Do not remember the source.  Sorry!

If you’ve ever had a question about what is really healthy as far as food and diets are concerned, I did a little research on the subject and found these invaluable insights through a series of questions and answers.  Read on for more enlightenment…

Q:  I’ve heard that cardiovascular exercise can prolong life; is this true?                                                                 

A:  Your heart is only good for so many beats, and that’s it…Don’t waster them on exercise.  Everything wears out eventually.  Speeding up your heart will not make you live longer; that’s like saying you can extend the life of your car by driving it faster.  Want to live longer?  Take a nap.

Q:  Should I cut down on meat and eat more fruits and vegetables?                                                                        

A:  You must grasp logistical efficiencies.  What does a cow eat?  Hay and corn.  And what are these?  Vegetables.  So a steak is nothing more than an efficient mechanism of delivering vegetables to your system.  Need grain?  Eat Chicken.  Beef is also a good source of field grass (green leafy vegetable). And a pork chop can give you 100% of your recommended daily allowance of vegetable products.

Q:  How can I calculate my body/fat ratio?                                                                                                    

A:  Well, if you have a body and you have fat, your ratio is one to one.  If you have two bodies, your ratio is two to one, etc.

Q:  What are some of the advantages of participating in a regular exercise program?                                        

A:  Can’t think of a single one, sorry.  My philosophy is:  No Pain…Good!

Q:  Aren’t fried foods bad for you?                                                                                                                                               

A:  YOU’RE NOT LISTENING!!!... Foods are fried these days in vegetable oil.  In fact, they’re permeated in it.  How could getting more vegetables be bad for you?

Q:  Will sit-ups help prevent me from getting a little soft around the middle?                                                                           

A:  Definitely not!  When you exercise a muscle, it gets bigger.  You should only be doing sit-ups if you want a bigger stomach.

Q:  Is chocolate bad for me?                                                                                                                                                       A:   Are you crazy?  HELLO Cocoa beans!  Another vegetable!!!  It’s the best feel-good food around!

Q:  Is swimming 

good for your figure?                                                                                                                              

A:  If swimming is good for your figure, explain whales to me.

Q:  Is getting in shape important for my lifestyle?                                                                                                     

A:  Hey! “Round” is a shape!

Well, I hope this has cleared up any misconceptions you may have had about food and diets.  And remember:  “Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways—donut in one hand, chocolate in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and yet you’re screaming, “WOO HOO!  WHAT A RIDE!”

APRIL MEMORIES

SOMETIMES WHEN WE LOOK BACK ON OUR LIVES, WE TEND TO FOCUS ON THE LACK WE HAD OR THE STRESS WE WERE EXPERIENCING.  BUT AT THE TIME OF THIS MEMORY, LIFE WAS GOOD.  VERY GOOD!  AND I THINK OF THOSE EARLY YEARS WITH FONDNESS AND A JOYFUL HEART FOR THE SIMPLE BLESSINGS THAT BROUGHT SO MUCH HAPPINESS.

 By the time Easter 1973 rolled around, life was pretty well-

established for the Nichols Family.  We’d been in the Welch Court house in Arvada,

 Colorado, almost two years, the grass and trees were in their second season, the

 cast-off furniture had been recovered, and I had made drapes out of window

 coverings Beth had sent my way.   So, even though we had only the basics, we

 weren’t shabby by any means.  Ross hadn’t decided to return to school yet.  So,

 we had a pleasant routine of sending Ross off to work in the morning, doing the

 housework, then I spent available time, that wasn’t needed for my Church calling,

 sewing while Harold and Brice played with blocks, wooden puzzles, simple toys, and

 pretty much entertained themselves before and after their naps. 

 When Ross came home in the evening, we had supper and later spent time

 together out in the yard if it was good weather or in the house playing games

 with each other. 

   

I made Easter outfits for Harold and Brice and a jersey dress

 for myself.  Brice’s was a pale orange short one piece knit suit that had tabs on

 the shoulders through which I threaded a tie made from orange and white cotton

 knit. I tied it with a sailor’s knot in front.  The total for fabric and notions was

 $0.40. For Harold I made a pair of grey slacks, $0.35 and a sport coat

 of grey/white seersucker with a red kerchief print lining.  It cost

 about $1.00 for the supplies.  My dress was a 70’s print jersey of purple, green,

 orange, and white.  The fabric was on sale at Target for $0.66/yd, so it

 priced out at $3.00 for zipper and all.  We were pretty stylin’ as we hopped down

 the Bunny Lane in the Easter Parade. 

I look back at those days as pleasant and productive both.  There are lots of good

 memories from that period of time and slides down the basement as proof.

EASTER GREETINGS 2026

 

HE IS RISEN !

EASTER

    Central to the history of all humankind is the life of Jesus Christ!  

The Savior's life influences the eternal destiny

 of everyone who has ever--or will ever live.

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ, on that first Easter Sunday, connects all of God's people throughout history:  those who were born before His Resurrection looked forward to it with faith.   Those who were born after His Resurrection look back on it with faith.   

Old Testament accounts and prophecies never mention the name Jesus Christ, but there is evidence of the ancient believers' faith in and longing for their Messiah and Redeemer. 

We who are invited to remember Him can absolutely feel a connection with those who looked forward to Him.  Jesus Christ's atoning sacrifice is what unites those who lived before the first Easter and those who live after it.      (From Come Follow Me outline for March 30-April 5, 2026)

I believe Easter is a joyful time, because it is a time to celebrate the Savior's Atonement and Resurrection.  Jesus Christ paid the ultimate price for my salvation and the salvation of all who ever lived upon the earth.

Plus, the Savior's Atonement made a way for us to feel comfort, healing, and peace even in the hardest parts of our lives.  Remember Jesus Christ knows how to come close to us in our personal suffering.  It is peace that the world cannot give.

I know what I have shared here is true. Not only have I felt peace in holy places, but I have also felt it in my home, my relationships, as a parent and in the secret sorrows of my heart.

My wish is that you will also feel the blessings of Jesus Christ's mission of salvation and peace.  Celebrate His love for you with praise and thanksgiving!

                            HAPPY EASTER!

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....