We Also Sing

By Susan Knight

 

I was quite farklempt* and distracted today at work in anticipation of the dress rehearsal tonight for my women’s chorus, “We Also Sing.”

 

Butterflies. All day.

 

We, my daughter and I, are performing at the Tabernacle in Salt Lake City for Temple Square Performances Friday night!!! Our chorus is about 364 women's voices, all extraordinary.

 

The 2013 "We Also Sing" Women's Chorus dress rehearsal at the Salt Lake Tabernacle.
I had to sneak taking pictures. Our director, Merrilee Webb,
told us to behave as we would want our children to behave.
I would want my children to take pictures :-S

 

I’m sure I’ll have loads of stories to tell next time. Hopefully some better pictures, too.

 

Who would have thought, when I moved to Utah, I’d ever get to sing in the Tabernacle? The dream was too big; it never even occurred to me to dream it.

 

Because of my damaged ankle, I couldn't climb the stairs and ended up in the front row with the "sitting people." It's all good. I found out I can't stand the whole hour we'll be singing, so I'll just sit. I am just as happy. I get to be in that spectacular hall with the echo and the reverb and the Spirit!

 

 How blessed am I?

 

The view from where I sit. Up close and personal to the organ. Yee-ha!

 

*Yiddish for "upset"

Fear Not

by Kami Cornwall

Fear, Anxiety and Depression. I have been learning about it and hearing from so many people who are facing those three monsters on a daily basis. In the course of a semester I have learned three very important ways to combat it. Ready for it? This is going to blow your mind. Faith, Hope and Charity.

Now at first you are thinking I'm getting all preachy and you're going to skim down to the end of this and mark it as "read." This isn't something coming from a religious leader. These are three separate answers that have been made clear by various professors this semester.

The thing that helps people overcome fear is having faith. Have faith that you are being guided, that things are going to work out, that you can come through this alive and relatively unscathed, that things will get better. Having faith in whatever supreme being you have faith in will help overcome fear. Also have faith in yourself.

In various therapy sessions the first and most important thing a therapist needs to instill is hope. People need to see a light at the end of the tunnel. They have to have some hope for the future, that it will be brighter. Hope shines bright in a world filled with anxiety. Things can change if you are willing to work on them.

Charity helps combat depression because it not only gets people outside of themselves and takes the focus away from their own problems, but it gives them a sense of altruism - that they have done something good for someone else - and the reward in that does wonders for the soul. It boosts self-esteem. Powerful.

I know, this is way too "fluffy" and "feel-goody" for me, right? But I thought this information was so amazingly useful and easy to remember that it HAD to be shared. I'll let you go as deep into this concept as you want and I'll leave it at that. Fear, Anxiety, Depression vs. Faith, Hope and Charity. Spread the love!

Stop Wasting Your Time

by Terri Wagner

Lately, I find myself asking myself do I really need to be doing this? Isn't this just a waste of time? What could I be doing instead? For me the saddest song I ever heard was Wasted Time by the Eagles.

So I resolved early on in my life I would not waste my time. This journey has been interesting. When I was much younger of course I felt I wasted time in high school. I mean really do we need that last year? And what about those first two years in college (btw this is better now)? I worked through college and in the summers...talk about wasting time!!!

Then in my YA years I began to play with my time. I did the serious stuff but made sure I had plenty of time for the play stuff. Ok, sometimes the play stuff took over. Like the time this guy and I played some Nintento game ALL night and we both had to work the next day. Or the play time I spent doing things that had no eternal perspective at all. Or the memorable moment I realized God can't take vacation time...hmmmm!!!!

Then came Might and Magic. I justified that one because I played with a couple and their high school aged son in a misguided attempt to bring the gospel to them. Moving along, then came online games like Farm Town and Castleville. I needed a break from the seriousness of life, right? That was my justification.

I think I'm taking another turn in my life. Suddenly I find myself asking myself you actually feel obligated to continue playing Castleville when you don't even understand the game, it takes way too much time, and you "owe" this online people to "tend" to their castles just to "help" them out? And how many cyber fields can you plow just to "catch" up to all the other people who seem to jump a million levels when the new ones come out? What are you doing? Aren't there better ways to get away from it all?

Then that old devil's advocate says to me. You need a break; it's just for fun; it's helping people; it's relaxing. Then the "new" voice responds, "But wait it's not relaxing...it's a nightmare trying to keep up and move ahead. And I don't even know if these people really exist. I could be tending castles with a computer-generated group of people."

So I've been reevaluating things. I want to help real people I actually know that have real problems that need my help. I want to work on family search indexing more. I want to do my own genealogy. And my dogs are always up for a walk. There are better ways to relax.

I am reminded of what someone once said: As Mormons, our choices are not always good vs. evil, but good vs. better. I'm not putting anyone down that plays any of these games. Lives change; circumstances change. Obviously I'm changing.

So I guess I should go post a notice in FB that I'm dropping out of the online gaming world for a while. I need to set some priorities and choose the better part for my life for right now.

Someday when appropriate I may come back to online gaming. But for now, I'm going to spend time with the next generation.

Ancestry and Writing Histories

By Claire Enos

Mom and I around Mother's Day when I was 12 or 13.

The other day, I was writing up the Ancestral History I was doing for my Family History Research class. I chose to write it on my mom, so I sent her an email with a few questions for her to answer to give me more information for the 10-page history. She sent me back a document full of information, over five pages single-spaced, with not only stories from her childhood and about her mom and dad but also a bunch of information about my great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents as well. I am overjoyed that I have so much I can choose to write about.

My mom is amazing and I'm so proud to be her eldest daughter! I love her, and writing this history just made me appreciate her even more! I'm glad I've been given the chance to get to know her better than I ever did growing up.

I'd like to encourage writers everywhere to take time to get to know your parents and grandparents and great-grandparents as well as you can. Even your aunts and uncles and so on. Anyone who you might be related to. We have the unique gift of being able to write better than most, because we are constantly perfecting this ability each time we write and take a class on writing. Why not get to know our relatives and write them a history? Print it up for them or email it to them. They'd love to read something you've written, and it makes it more special when it's about them by a loved one.

Pretty soon, I'll be starting my personal history for that same class. I'm looking forward to this, and exploring myself more. I might even ask my mom to supply some details for my personal history that I can add. Then I can print it up and share it with my family members, along with another project I'm working on about my family and growing up with them.

My family in front of our house this past July 2011.

It's days like this that I realize how lucky I am to have been given the talent of writing, and to have parents who encourage me in all I do, and to be in a wonderful Church that is supportive of developing my talents as well.

So on that note, continue writing! And if you have time, try writing a little more auto-biographical! Your family will love it!

<3Claire

Me now, at age 21