I'm a New Grandma Today!

Kate Elizabeth Baadsgaard was born today!
There is no greater miracle than a newborn child. 
She is absolutly beautiful.  I felt like I was in heaven while I held her for several hours today. Congratulations Jacob and Teresa! Emma is going to love having a baby sister.

Happy Birthday Sandy!!!

SANDY & THE MAGIC JEWEL
by
Granny B

This is a special story
written for my granddaughter Sandy
on her sixth birthday.

Once upon a time there was a little girl named Sandy who lived much too far away from her grandma. One day her Grandmother came to visit because she missed Sandy’s hugs and kisses so much she couldn’t stand it any longer.

Sandy’s birthday was coming in a few weeks. Grandma didn’t know if she would see her granddaughter on her special day so she left a birthday present for Sandy hidden in her parent’s closet. Sandy tried very hard not to peek but once she sneaked into her parent’s closet and brushed aside the tissue paper in the gift bag. She saw two sweaters and shirts.

On the day of her birthday, Sandy took her sweaters and shirts from the gift bag and set them aside. Then she slipped her hand deep inside to see if anything else was hiding in there. At the bottom of the bag was a large sparkly jewel. Sandy had never seen a jewel that big and she was sure she was now the richest six-year-old in the universe.

Sandy was pretty sure the jewel had magic powers. So she took the jewel into her bedroom and closed the door. Then she rubbed the jewel in her hands three times, closed her eyes and made a wish.

“I wish my regular school was a princess school,” Sandy said just before she placed the jewel under her pillow.

The next day when she opened the door to her school, Sandy looked for people wearing crowns and tiaras but she didn’t see any. When she walked into her classroom Sandy’s teacher was wearing a long flowing gown covered in sequins.

“Students,” her teacher said, “today you will learn how to be a real prince and a princess.”

Sandy couldn’t wait. She primped her hair and waited for her teacher to bring her fancy clothes, shoes and a crown to wear.

“Follow me,” the teacher said.

First her teacher led her to the cleaning supplies closet.

“This is King Henry’s abode,” her teacher said smiling at the school janitor. “He keeps our school clean every day and nobody even knows that he is really a king.”

Sandy looked at Mr. Smith. She didn’t see a crown.

“Where’s his crown?” Sandy asked.

“He doesn’t need to wear his crown,” her teacher answered. “He knows what the best kings do.”

Sandy was confused.

Next her teacher led her to the lunch room.

“Presenting Queen Rita, Queen Rosa and Queen Lilly,” her teacher said.

Sandy looked at the lunch ladies in their hairnets and aprons. She didn’t see any tiaras with diamonds and rubies.

But they don’t have any crowns,” Sandy said.

“They don’t like to show off,” her teacher said. “But they knew what the best queens do.”

Sandy shook her heard.

“But how can you be a queen or a king if you don’t have a crown?” she asked.

“The very best kings and queens don’t wear crowns,” her teacher said. “They serve people. Some of them give children a clean place to learn and good food to eat. Most people don’t know they are royalty but they are.”

That afternoon when Sandy got home she looked at her mommy. She wondered if her mommy was a queen because she gave her children a clean place to learn and good food to eat.

Then she ran into her bedroom, took her birthday jewel out from under her pillow, rubbed it three times and made a wish.

“I wish I was a princess,” Sandy said.

Then she went into the kitchen.

“Can I help you clean up around here and get dinner ready?” Sandy asked her mother. “I am princess in training.”

“Why yes,” her mother answered a little surprised.

“By the way mommy,” Sandy said. “I know you’re really a queen but you don’t like to show off.”

Having the Courage to try New Things At Any Age

How do we keep our zest for living as we age?  Do something you've never done before!  Have the courage to be a beginner! 

When we have a new experience physically it takes us to new territory mentally. When we let go of routine and venture into the discomfort of being a beginner, it opens dormant mental power. We feel more enthusiasm, energy and excitement for other areas of our life as well.

The power of learning and experiencing new things is contagious. Learning in one area ignites learning in another. If we are always learning or experiencing something new it keeps us in touch with how it feels during the change process.

When we were children, each day presented us with something challenging. We were constantly required to change, adapt and grow. Most adults on the other hand, ease into a comfortable rut and get stuck in stability, stagnation and safety. The wonder, curiosity and sparkle left our eyes.


All of us know someone who is old in years but still retains their zest for living. They’re fun to be around. How do they do it? They have the courage to keep trying new things. How do we get this childhood liveliness back? Learn or experience something new.

It takes humility and courage to be a beginner at any age. “Oh, I could never do that,” I hear people say when I invite them to try something. I always tell them they will never know if they never try. I hear lots of excuses – money, time, ability, talents, illness and age. In fact, if we really want to do something, we’ll find a way. 

Doing Things You Think You Can't Do

While I was growing up, I always wanted to play in the school orchestra. I begged my mother, but she told me only rich kids played expensive instruments. So I sang in the choir instead. Singing didn’t cost anything. Well, I grew up, got married, and it took me thirty years to get all my children in school. I thought I’d missed my chance. Then at 52 I quit using old excuses and joined the New Horizons Orchestra. This is a unique orchestra. They welcome beginners.


When I began playing the violin, the music I produced resembled sick birds with scratchy sore throats - but I kept trying. As I practiced I felt areas of my brain wake up and form new connections. My fingers drummed note placements on my bed pillow at night. I heard the melody I was learning drifting through my mind at odd times, like when I was driving the car or doing the dishes. As the orchestra director gently guided us through our first elementary songs, there were moments when the music seemed to lift from the page and wrap around my heart. During the pauses, the moments of quiet between the notes, I felt aroused and elevated – like flying without leaving the ground. The learning process was not intimidating or humiliating; it was energizing, exhilarating and fun. After we played our first song in three parts, I jumped from my seat exclaiming, “We’re an orchestra! We make music!”

One woman had a brain tumor, resulting in the removal of large portions of her brain. She went into a deep depression that didn’t lift until her husband brought her to our orchestra. As she learned to play an instrument, her brain developed new pathways and many other abilities came back to her. An eighty-six year old woman crippled with arthritis also became a member of the orchestra. Though her fingers were gnarled, she persisted and learned to play the violin before she died.

We’re never too old, young, dumb or poor to learn something new. Studies show people rarely try anything new after the age of forty. Good grief, we have to be that old before we’re wise enough to let go of all the status symbols in our culture and start living an authentic life. It’s never time to have a midlife crisis. It’s always time to have an all-life awakening. An all-life awakening invites us to learn something new at every age.

Happiness X Two

Experiencing life
with someone you love
just makes everything
twice as sweet.

Inviting the Gift of Laughter into Your Life

Researchers have discovered that laughter can actually lower blood pressure and trigger a flood of endorphins. Endorphins are brain chemicals that bring on a feeling of well-being and even euphoria. Laughter also affects our immune system. Gamma-interferon, a disease-fighting protein, rises with laughter. So do B-cells, which produce disease-destroying antibodies and T-cells, which orchestrate our body’s immune response. Laughter can also shut off the flow of stress hormones that come into play when we feel hostility, rage or stress. Stress hormones suppress the immune system, raise blood pressure, and increase the number of platelets in the blood which can cause fatal artery blockage. Keeping a sense of humor really is serious business.

There are literally hundreds of ways to invite joy and laughter into your life without waiting until everything is going smoothly, because it never will. Finding humor can be learned, practiced, reinforced and internalized just like any other skill. Everyone has an innate sense of humor, although it may be hidden after years of neglect. Remember, those who laugh – last. Humor is an effective way to manage stress and prevent burnout. Stress is caused by our perception of events not the actual events. We can’t control what happens to us but we can control our perception of what happens to us through humor. That is power through perspective.

If we can find humor in something - we can survive it. People who are dour and gloomy exacerbate their illnesses and shorten their life spans. Laugher is as good as exercise. To stay healthy we not only have to eat right, we have to think right. Happy people treat stress as a positive challenge rather than a negative event. Being able to laugh at ourselves is mentally healthy.

By developing a sense of humor, we can increase our ability to tap creative problem-solving abilities. Humor can be an affectionate communication of insight. Using humor is one way to lobby for change without being offensive. One wife found if she clutched her heart and threw herself on the floor yelling, "Oh, you’re so right, it’s killing me!” when she and her husband started arguing, the steam suddenly left the conflict. Another woman took out a classified ad that read, “Husband for sale, cheap. Comes complete with hunting and fishing equipment, one pair of jeans, two shirts, black Lab retriever and too many pounds of venison. Pretty good guy, but not home much from October to December and from April to October. Will consider trade.” After approximately 66 telephone calls, some of them serious, the wife placed another ad: “Retraction of husband for sale cheap. Everybody wants the dog, not the husband.”

Humor is also an effective way to communicate serious messages with a light touch. For example, there was a woman who was always losing her glasses. So she decided to use humor to solve her problem. She pasted a note to her glasses case that read, “If you have these, I don’t. They are owned by a little old lady who is driving home among your loved ones. Please return.” Then she included her name and address. After she put that note on her glasses, the person who found them always quickly returned them.

Love may make the world go around, but laughter keeps us from getting so dizzy we want to get off. Humor is everywhere if we’re paying attention. Take for example the notice in the church bulletin board that read, “There will be meetings in the north and south ends of the church. Children will be baptized on both ends.” Or the sign on a hospital bulletin board that observed, “Research shows that the first five minutes of life can be the most risky.” Penciled underneath, “The last five minutes are pretty risky too.” Or the cartoon of a doctor consulting with a patient that read, “I think the problem is your gall bladder, but if you want on a second opinion, Ill say it’s your kidneys.”

There are circumstances in life we can change and circumstances we can’t. Humor helps us effectively deal with both. We don’t have to grin and bear it - we can grin and share it. We’ll discover life is so much more fun when we share more than we bear. Humor can be a wonderful way to add years to our life and life to our years – by preventing a hardening of the attitudes. Laugher is the jest medicine.

Grin and Share It

Our family slogan is: “If you keep both feet on the ground, you can’t get your pants on!” I like that slogan because it reminds me to take life lightly. To move from “grin and bear it” to “grin and share it” we need to surround ourselves with positive people and choose life-affirming activities. I’m usually way too serious, so I purposely write humorous family life newspaper columns, magazine articles and books to help me live on the bright side. If we’re naturally dour we need to practice laughing especially at ourselves by telling jokes, embarrassing stories or making up funny slogans. Laugher is a great form of exercise – like jogging on the inside.


We can get more mileage from our muff-ups and mistakes by sharing them. For example, the day I backed into my husband’s company truck with our family van in our own driveway was not a stellar moment. I instantly knew we’d have to pay for both repairs out-of-pocket. I felt so deeply dumb it leaked out my eyeballs. A man in my neighborhood dropped off his little girl to play with my daughter about an hour later. Dumbness was still leaking from my eyes when he arrived.

“What’s wrong?” he asked. When I told him, he laughed. His reaction was not what I expected. “Hey that’s nothing,” he continued. “You should have seen the look on this guy’s face when I pulled him over and forgot to put my patrol car in park. I was standing there writing him a speeding ticket when suddenly – bam! The poor guy got a speeding ticket and his new car rear-ended by the deputy sheriff in less than a minute. Not exactly a shining moment for the department.”

After hearing his story, I laughed out loud. Suddenly my driveway crash didn’t seem so bad any more. I instantly liked this deputy a lot more after he told me his story. Why? He became human to me. He was he no longer an intimidating, straight-faced officer with a gun just waiting behind the corner to catch me doing something stupid. He did dumb things just like me.

“Hey,” I answered. “Once I managed to wreck our car all by myself without even leaving our garage! It cost thousands to fix it!”

We went on trying to top each other with all the dumb things we’d done with our motor vehicles until we were both in stitches. The point here is - we both felt a lot better that day after we shared all our not-so-brilliant goof-ups. Why? Humor builds bridges, relieves stress and promotes health. The next time you do something really dumb don’t try to hide it. Blab it to everyone you see that day. Chances are you’ll learn all the goofy things everybody else has done and you’ll both feel a whole lot better.

A Great Quote

"Failure is perhaps the greatest key to success. More specifically, your response to failure is the real key. Growth in an organization only comes with stretching and risk taking. It is up to the leader to create a healthy environment where people are not afraid to fail. Mistakes should be seen as an integral part of the organizational process. They are a normal part of striving for excellence." *Andrew Harvey

Catastrophe + Time = Humor

One of the most amazing mathematical facts your algebra teacher never taught you is this - catastrophe + time = humor. The quicker we laugh about and share the embarrassing or humiliating events in our lives, the sooner we’ll relax and enjoy life. When we stop worrying about our public image, we begin living authentically. We don’t have to grit our teeth and endure life white-knuckled, afraid of looking incompetent or foolish to our friends, associates and family. Why? Because people actually relate to us better when we’re a dufus. All of us have felt inept at times. Nobody feels perfectly put-together and competent; we all have a slight inferiority complex. When we try to appear flawless, we give a false impression that intimidates others.


For example, once my family was asked to sing a musical number in church. I didn’t want to look incompetent so I made my large, unruly brood practice for several months until I was sure we were ready to perform flawlessly. Needless to say, events did not go as planned. When it came time for us to perform, I lined my little ones in front of the microphone on a stool and placed the older children behind them. My husband stood at the side holding the baby so he could make sure no one bolted for the door.

I sat down on the piano and was almost ready to begin my introduction when my young son on the front row suddenly sucked the entire microphone into his mouth and yelled, “Ahhh-OOOO-GA!!!”

I watched in horror as my husband set the baby down so he could de-suction our toddler from the microphone. Then the baby ran over to the piano and started banging on the keys. At this point the other little kids on the front row got the giggles so bad that snot foamed out their nostrils. The older children on the back row were so humiliated they were a member of our embarrassing family that they turned a deep shade of red, vowing to change their last name and move into an orphanage.

To this day, I can’t remember if we actually sang the song we’d meticulously prepared for that day. I was so embarrassed I don’t recall what actually happened after that. What I do remember is that I’ve never received so many compliments. I learned other people don’t expect our public performances to be perfect and, in fact, they are more entertaining when something goes wrong.

“That was the best musical number we’ve had in this ward for years,” was the sentiment I heard expressed from dozens of giggling ward members. The whole congregation seemed energized, happier and friendlier to each other that day. It dawned on me that my fellow church goers had not judged me as an incompetent mother saddled with uncontrollable, obnoxious children – they actually enjoyed the whole bumbling Baadsgaard performance. If we’re going to look goofy anyway, why waste so much time trying to appear like we’re not?

These days I actually enjoy showing up to any family performance to see what embarrassing or goofy things we are going to do this time. The day I quit trying to orchestrate or control what was going to happen was the day I began enjoying my life. Think about it - what do we talk about around the dinner table or when we visit with friends? We generally share the most embarrassing events in our lives. So why don’t we just laugh about them when they happen? If we had performed flawlessly that Sunday, our family musical number would have been quickly forgotten. Instead we are now recorded in the annals of church history. Everybody loved us for just trying. Why? Because we’ve all been there. We’ve all forgotten to zip up our pants, been turned down for a date, or failed a test. It makes us feel better when we see we’re not alone.

Smiling Creates Joy

Smiling is the forerunner of laughter. In fact, our ability to laugh is serious business. Did you know scientists have discovered if we suppress our laughter, it sucks back down into our body and spreads out at our hips? When we radiate happiness, it is reflected back to us. The opposite is also true. Remember the last time you felt grouchy? Wasn’t it amazing how everybody around you seemed to be having a bad day as well? In the morning when my children leave for school instead of saying, “Have a great day,” I say, “Make it great day. The choice is yours!”

When is the last time you laughed so hard your face hurt, your eyes watered and your nose ran? When is the last time you did something really dumb or embarrassing then laughed yourself silly right away instead of waiting for ten years to see the humor in the situation? When is the last time you shared a funny story or joke instead of your latest tragedy or ailment?

Smiling is also a great way to meet new people. I’ve learned strangers are just future friends I haven’t smiled at yet. Once I was sitting in the Marriot Center at BYU during a Women’s Conference. I was one of the speakers that day but none of my family or friends could make it to listen to my talk. I was feeling sad and alone even though there were thousands of women all around me. At that very moment, the woman sitting next to me turned and smiled. I smiled back.

“You have such beautiful skin,” she said.

Shocked, I looked into her kind eyes and answered, “Thank you.”

It felt like she’d tossed me a ball of sunshine. My usual response would be to dismiss a compliment with something like, “My skin? Are you kidding? I have such greasy skin and I still get zits.” Yet that day I felt the need to accept her gift with the same graciousness it was offered. I could tell she was sincere. In the end, it didn’t really matter what she said. She could have said, “You have such beautiful hangnails.” What mattered was that she smiled at me, acknowledged I existed and said something kind to me. Instantly, I no longer felt alone or sad any more. I had the impression that if this woman and I knew each other, we would be friends. It occurred to me that I was surrounded by family and friends. I just hadn’t met or smiled at them yet.

We unlock our personal power for good when we offer the gift of a genuine and loving smile. Turning up the corners of our mouths helps us spread sunshine every where we go. So on those days when we feel less than, worried, diminished, sad or lonely – we need to get out there and start smiling. I’ve learned my day usually goes the same way as the corners of my mouth.

Smiling Adventures Part Two

Never underestimate the power of a smile.

I remember a time when I was worried about one of my teenage sons. I prayed long and hard asking God to teach me how to demonstrate my deep love for him. The impression I received was simple – smile. This answer perplexed me. Still, I gave it a try. I began smiling at my son more often. I made an effort to catch his eye and smile at him during breakfast and at supper. Before he left for school, I hugged, kissed and smiled at him. When he was driving away in the car, I waved and smiled. When he got home, I smiled. Something happened to me because of those smiles. I felt more love for my son. My heart softened toward him. I noticed myself appreciating him more and becoming keenly aware of his courage in the face of adolescence. I wasn’t sure at the time if he noticed or if it meant anything to him. Teenage boys aren’t famous for expressing tender emotions. Some time later I received a letter from this son who had become an adult.


“Dear Mom, thank you for smiling at me. When I was making my most difficult decisions I would see your face in my mind, smiling,” he wrote. “I knew you loved me and it made all the difference.”

Smiling creates an instant connection – a universal language that says, “Hi! I notice you. I like what I see.” Smiling is something positive we do that elevates our thoughts and the thoughts of the one receiving the smile. Grinning helps the person we smile at feel noticed, accepted and validated. Yes, some chronically grouchy people will be suspicious and will not respond in kind – but even then we can drive them crazy wondering what we’re up to.

Like learning to play a musical instrument, smiling will not come naturally at first. If we want to get good at something, we have to practice. When I played the violin for the first time, I didn’t know how to hold the bow or where to place my fingers on the strings. The sound I produced was scratchy and ear piercing. Likewise, our first cautious smiles won’t instantly produce a sudden change in life as we know it. In fact we may feel uncomfortable and even embarrassed at first. Most people start out smiling tentatively - ready to take back their smile if it’s not returned. If we keep trying, our efforts to smile easily and often will soon become a habit. The more we smile, the more others will be drawn to us. Smiling and receiving a smile is a simple moment of connected joy.

Celebrating the 4th of July with my Family

Smiling Adventures

Smiling is the quickest way to change a bad mood.  However, getting other people to smile on demand is a bit tricky. Attempts to get my sizeable family bathed, dressed and looking pleasant for a picture is like medieval torture. Just saying the words “family portrait” makes me break out in a cold sweat. When my non-enthusiastic family is finally lined up for this mother-initiated activity, I feel great compassion for our frazzled photographer.


“Pull that finger out of your nose,” the photographer says. “Would the teenager on the back row take off the sun glasses? Now everybody, look at me. You in the black suit - quit giving your wife finger antlers. Now on the count of three, everybody look at me and say pickles. One, two, three - pickles!”

Pickles? Why pickles? Because saying that word makes people smile. Try it. Why do we want to see ourselves smiling in pictures? Why not just snap a realistic photo of family members milling around showing their true mood at the moment? Because we all look and feel better when we smile. So why don’t we do it more often?

While insisting others smile can be a cause of great frustration, getting ourselves to smile will always bring us joy. If you want to conduct a truly magical experiment try this. Look each person you encounter in the eye and then smile. Do this even if you don’t feel like it and whether or not your life is running smoothly at the moment. Do this with family members and total strangers. Notice how smiling makes you feel.

When we smile, we send the signal to our brain that we’re happy. Our body responds to what we think and pretty soon we are happy. We feel more relaxed and radiant when we smile. Also observe the responses you receive after you smile. Most people will smile back. Will you receive a few odd looks? Yes, but don’t let that discourage you. Why do most people smile back? Because when someone smiles, we assume they’re thinking a kind thought about us. Smiling is contagious. The more smiles we give away, the more smiles we receive in return.

Challenging Circumstances Are Part of Being Alive

The American Red Cross trains their volunteers to help people involved in trauma to focus on how they survived instead of going over and over the trauma that has occurred to them. That way they are teaching the victim to focus on their coping skills rather than reliving the horror of the experience.

Whether our own personal trauma is large or small, we too can also make a choice to focus on our courage and faith instead of constantly re-living or dwelling on the bad experiences that happen to all of us. 

Challenging circumstances are part of being alive. We don't have to feel picked on.  If we get our minds off our self and focus on others we will soon become aware that everyone faces problems. Focusing on others gives us the ability to think about and deal with our own difficulties in a more realistic and mature way. 

Part of being well adjusted is the ability to deal cheerfully with the inevitable disappointments of life.  Instead of focusing on what is going wrong in our life, we can choose to focus and what is going right. 

For example one day my son came home from school and told me that the other boys had called him "stupid boots". I told him I was sorry he had a bad day.  He replied, "I didn't have a bad day.  Just a bad two minutes.  The rest of the day was great."

No matter what happens to us, we can choose to face trouble with courage and dignity.  When we face the difficulties of life with optimism and hope we can more quickly let go of all the bad and get on with all the good.

No one is always well-adjusted. We all have our fragile days when we feel like we're going to fall apart.  On my hard days I like to wear a sweatshirt with a mallard duck print on the front. The duck’s head is on backward. Underneath the duck is this word, "mallard-justed."

Sometimes we feel like our heads are on backward or we’re being slowly pecked to death. That’s when we need to turn to God and renew our strength. We are all maladjusted to a certain degree and in a perpetual state of adjusting to life's challenges. Problems will keep happening as long as we are still alive. It helps to remember we win some and we lose some. There is no easy time of life, but we only get the day once and then it is gone.

We can choose more positive coping skills or adjustment patterns when we feel overwhelmed, anxious, stressed out or downhearted. We may choose to pray, go for a run, lie in a hammock, play a round of golf, sing in the shower or write a long narrative in our journal.  The only person who can really get us down is us.

There is a battle for our souls going on every single day.  That battle is largely played out in our minds. We have to face the enemy and kill those negative, wounded and fearful thoughts.  We can do it.  We can do hard things. The audacity to be cheerful and grateful even in the midst of great stress and trouble is the mark of a life well lived.

Developing Positive Patterns of Adjustment to Life's Problems

We don't choose our challenges but we do choose our response.

One of my friends told me she had battled depression her whole life. She’d tried counseling and medication but nothing seemed to help. Then she discovered when she played the piano her depression lifted.

She now chooses to spend a great deal of her time playing beautiful music at rest homes.


I had another friend who was constantly upset with her husband because he wouldn’t talk to her. She was certain that if her husband really loved her, he would have long, heartfelt conversations with her. Well, her husband was a quiet man. For thirty years she was frustrated. One evening it came to a breaking point. She told him she’d had enough. If he didn’t talk to her, she was going to leave him. What did her husband do? He promptly stood up and walked out of the room. Her threats got louder as she chased him to the front door. Finally in desperation she lunged forward and hit him on the back of the head. I learned about this experience when I saw her sitting in church with her hand in a cast.
“What happened?” I asked.
“Want the truth or what I’ve been telling everybody else?” she answered.
“The truth.”
“I hit my husband and broke two fingers.”
She was obviously embarrassed. She turned to me and tearfully said, “I’ve been trying to get him to talk to me for thirty years. I just couldn’t stand it any more. I couldn’t bear to watch him walk out on me one more time.”

Now, I am also married to a quiet man, so I said, “Want some ideas?” She sheepishly nodded. “The next time you feel you have to talk to your husband so desperately you’re going to burst, go for a walk instead,” I said. “Then talk to God. Ask God if He loves you. Be still and listen until you feel God’s love. No one else can give you that kind of unconditional love. The rest of us are just practicing.” She stared at me, puzzled. “Then after you feel divine love, ask God how to love your husband.”

I promised her she would be filled with positive impressions of her husband’s strengths instead of his weaknesses. I promised her that when she finished walking, she’d feel more love for herself and her husband. I didn’t see this woman for a few months. When I saw her, her cast was off and she was holding hands with her husband while she walked down the hall at church. She winked at me.

“Thank you!” she said enthusiastically. “And I’ve lost ten pounds!”

Whether we go for a walk or play beautiful music at rest homes, positive patterns of adjustment to life's difficulties can and will give us more joy in our mortal journey. Carefully chosen personal coping techniques give us tools to live with power, dignity and energy.

We’re all going to meet with frustrations and pain. The important thing is what we do when faced with problems like financial failure, scandal, divorce, abuse, death, way-ward children, chronic ill-health issues, old age and any other of a million problems or challenges. Everyone does something. Some people turn into hermits. Others turn to drugs, sickness or chronic victim-hood.

We can choose to turn to God, learn about the nature of true love, hope and patience and press forward with gratitude. The scriptures refer to this as enduring to the end – to which I add, enduring well to the end.