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Sabbath Devotional :: Learn, Love, Act
During this time of COVID, our empty nest has expanded with four other people in the house since March — a baby and a three-year-old and their parents who both have full time jobs in DC. Our son and daughter-in-law manage their careers remotely from our place in the West, and we all spend segments of the day with the littles. We are all healthy. All things considered, for the worst of times, this is the best of times. Despite the lovely landmarks like first teeth, learning to count to 100, and Sunday home church when we share the sacrament, I admit that I still feel unsettled, unfocused, subpar, and…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Accepting the Wilderness
Several weeks ago, I found unexpected comfort in the words of Amulek. They came at the end of his sermon on prayer, the one where he tells the people to pray everywhere — in their fields and houses, over their crops and flocks, for protection from their enemies and Satan. And then he says: ye must pour out your souls in your closets, and your secret places, and in your wilderness (Alma 34:26). It’s that last phrase that caught me: your wilderness. He uses it so casually that I hadn’t noticed it before. Wilderness, whatever. But this time it stopped me cold. Wilderness. That is the word that I started following in…
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Sabbath Devotional :: The Gift of Discernment
There have been many times in my life when I have been wrong about things. But there was one time in particular when I was really wrong about something, and it resulted in a lot of pain and personal anguish. I was deceived. I put my trust in the wrong person and listened to the wrong voices. I did eventually arrive at a place of clarity and truth, but damage had already been done and it was not an easy thing for me to recover from. Although it was painful, this experience taught me many valuable lessons that have continued to help me as I have moved forward. Many of…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Traveling Along the Path
My husband and I love road trips. I think back to just a year ago when I traveled with my husband and some of our family members freely about the country. This, after three years of serving a mission. We had been set apart working with the missionaries in the Georgia, Auburn, Alabama, and lower South Carolina area. We traveled at least two weeks out of the month, working with our missionaries. We spoke in wards and branches and at conferences across the mission. Every six weeks we drove 1.5 hours transporting departing missionaries and picking up incoming ones. You would think we would have felt traveled out! But there…
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Are You Aware? The Consideration of the Ongoing Colonizing Project of Education
This is part V in our “Nation to Nation” Awareness Wednesday series. Read the other posts in the series here. “They steal, then they take your memory of the theft.” — Shad (2018) I sit here, in my living room, by my window overlooking the intersection in downtown Provo, Utah (if there is such a place). On the four corners are the Provo City Center Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the county health department, an auto body shop, and the apartment building where I live — Church, state, commerce, and home. Cars buzz by. So do the clouds. The sky is blue. And today is Pioneer…
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Sabbath Devotional :: Good Inspiration is Based upon Good Information
For a few months I have wanted to share a particular story with all of you, but wasn’t quite sure why. It is deeply personal so I wanted to be very careful in my telling. Then this week, I have felt pulled to write a devotional about personal revelation and things started to come together. As you will see, my story is an example of what NOT to do, but I also hope to share some of the wisdom that was granted to me as I worked through my weakness. In this talk from the April 2018 General Conference, President Nelson said: “…good inspiration is based upon good information.” He…
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Are You Aware? COVID-19 in Indian Country
This is part IV in our “Nation to Nation” Awareness Wednesday series. Read the other posts in the series here. The effects of COVID-19 in Indian Country have been devastating. COVID hit Indian Country later than many other places in America. The Navajo Nation was the first. The Navajo reservation is the size of West Virginia, making it the largest reservation in the United States. With 170,000 people living there, it is sparsely populated. The Diné (their preferred name) keep themselves fed and warm by sheep herding. The sheep are used for food and sheared for the wool to make yarn for weaving. Known worldwide for their beauty, Navajo rugs are…
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The Power (and Covenant) of Community
Do you ever get words stuck in your head? Or notice a specific word or concept popping up over and over? These last few weeks, “community” keeps working its way into my thoughts. Being physically separated or isolated from our communities right now, not able to “meet together oft” (3 Nephi 18:22), has made me think a lot about the importance and power of community. A few weeks ago, I watched Just Mercy and noticed how this theme weaves its way through the storylines. For the inmates who are physically cut off from the outside world and for their families and friends and neighbors trying to band together against the injustices…
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Are You Aware? Who Are We, America?
This is part III in our “Nation to Nation” Awareness Wednesday series. Read the other posts in the series here. Recently, I was in the lobby of a radio station with a city law enforcement officer who is a criminal investigator (CI). The two of us were waiting to be interviewed on the radio about missing and murdered Indigenous people. The criminal investigator spoke to me about a case that happened downtown. She said she responded to a call where police officers told her they found a deceased Native American woman inside an apartment. The lead officer told the CI that the Native woman died from suicide. Upon investigation, the CI…
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Rethinking Anger and Peacemaking
When scrolling through social media or listening to the news, it seems lots of people are angry, for a lot of different reasons. It may be tempting to dismiss such anger as divisive. However, as a professor and student of rhetoric, I am troubled by this tendency to dismiss other people and their arguments simply because we believe those arguments are made in anger. If we are committed to peacemaking and eliminating injustice, we need to be open to discussions, even if the framing or content of those discussions makes us uncomfortable. Not all anger is equal I want to be clear: I’m not saying we should give a pass…
