Salt

I am a churchgoer and a Bible reader, among other practices I do as part of being religious in my religion: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

I attend church as many Sundays as I possibly can. The idea that “[we] are the salt of the earth” keeps coming up, on so many Sundays, both in sermons and in Sunday School discussions.

Today I heard it again. It’s a reference found in the Bible, specifically in the gospel of St. Matthew:

“Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.” (Matt. 5:13, as part of Jesus Christ’s Sermon on the Mount)

I’ve been hearing this all my life, that everyone is “the salt of the earth.” But even until this day, I encounter some difficulty in fully grasping this metaphor. I understand the basic point, that if we lose our desire to be positive influences in the world we live in (this desire our “saltiness”), then we’re good-for-nothings. What I can’t seem to wrap my head around, however, is the fact that salt can indeed lose its savor. I’ve never experienced unsalty salt before. Quality Control & Assurance teams don’t typically release unsalty salt for distribution to consumers.

So today, when I again heard about “the salt of the earth,” I decided to try wrapping my head a different way around. I reflected upon all the times this winter that I’ve already witnessed salt get applied to icy sidewalks, roads, parking lots, and driveways. The results of pouring salt onto icy surfaces have blessed my life nearly every day since the outside temperatures hit freezing this year.

To expound on the particular ways that this type of salt blesses, I say unto you that first and foremost it helps you maintain solid footing while walking. Secondly, it eases your mind and comforts you when you fear that you perhaps may slip and fall.

I think we can be this kind of salt for each other. We can seek opportunities to help each other solidify footing on life paths that are hard. We can be each other’s comforters, guiding stars, and guardian angels.

If I had a Top 3 favorite songs of all time, Paul Simon and Arthur Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” would hands-down rank there. I invite you to watch this video and listen carefully to the lyrics. Illustrates beautifully and perfectly in song what I mean by us being the “winter salt of the earth.”

Thoughts on Prayer

Last Friday was my work’s low-key Christmas/Employee Appreciation luncheon in our new facility’s ginormous “party room” (I don’t know what else to call it; as of yet, that room hasn’t much of a purpose).

To begin the luncheon, our business’s owner uttered his “Welcome!” and said, “Before we eat (Jimmy John’s—yum!), let’s begin with a blessing upon the food.”

A prayer? At work? was my first thought. I was thrown off a bit. It’s seriously not every day you witness someone praying publicly, let alone you actually being involved in the supplication.

My 70+ coworkers and I were sitting together in the party room. In one accord, we bowed our heads and closed our eyes, while the chief production manager (we’re a manufacturing corporation) offered the prayer.

I can’t begin to tell you just how dear to my heart that moment was. Amid the prayer, my mind paused briefly and realized the sheer awesomeness of the moment. There I sat, surrounded by a multitude of folks who I presume aren’t particularly religious. This prayer very likely broke many a person’s norm in that party room. Nonetheless, I perceive that the upper management’s decision to start the luncheon with a prayer was respected by everyone there, and everyone’s complete reverence during the prayer impressed me profoundly.

When the luncheon was over, I returned to my office and briefly checked up on the outside world’s news. Little did I know that all the while I was helping with the luncheon, heartbreaking news stories of one of the most devastating school shootings were circulating like a cyclone across all media forms.

I wept as I read about what happened, but I kept in my heart the sweet feeling I had when my coworkers and I prayed together. I like to consider that feeling as a tender mercy from God, because it comforted me when I wanted comfort as I pondered the events that had just occurred that morning in Newtown, Connecticut.

The memory of my company’s prayer also reminded me of the way America unites in prayer and love during tragedy aftermaths, especially the ones that develop on American soil. The aftermath of September 11, 2001, is a prime example.

There are those who are most deeply and directly affected by the tragedies. Isn’t it interesting how we naturally automatically sympathize with them even though we don’t personally know them? Much more often than not, we’re so distant from these people, according to proximity and social degrees of separation. But we still yearn to help them in any way possible. The number one way to help that we think of is prayer.

Prayer.

Our social network newsfeeds (that is probably supposed to be two words—“news feeds”—but I don’t care; one word looks better to me) were flooded with “My prayers go out to those who lost their loved ones” and other similarly worded posts on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and still today (Monday).

Prayer.

Just as I presumed that many of my coworkers aren’t too religious and might not often pray, I think that, possibly, many of the dear people who are sending their prayers toward those who need the prayers likewise might not often pray.

It’s in times like these that our hearts are broken, that we sincerely seek comfort and a better world, and that we have a glimmer of hope that there is Deity who can help us.

My bottom line is this:

How wonderful it is that we unify in prayer and love in these seasons of sorrow; however, we mustn’t cease holding prayers and love in our hearts once ample time passes beyond the seasons of sorrow. With all of my heart, I believe we are all children of a Heavenly Father who loves us unconditionally and eternally. With all of His heart, He wants us to talk to Him, in bad times and in good. Let us always pray. When we’re not on our knees, when we’re not praying out loud, may we pray to Him via heart in the name of His beloved Son, Jesus Christ, who also loves us much, much more than we can imagine. With all of my heart, I believe our honest, earnest prayers get answered.

Thank you for reading.

Aspiration is Inspiration

[Disclaimer: This could very well be my most directly-from-the-heart piece of writing that I’ve ever been willing to dispense into the great wide somewhere. Take advantage. You may never read anything by me like this again.]

Once upon a time, not long ago at all, my colleague Nick told me a true and terrible story from his own life:

Several years ago, I worked the night shift at a fast food restaurant. It was late and dark outside. Along came this group of people walking through the drive-thru, asking me for free food.

I said, “No, you’ve got to pay for it,” but then they said, “No!”

(WHAT THE HECK, right?)

I tried compromising with them. I said, “Okay, look, if you come in here and help clean all the tables, I’ll let you have some food.” But they refused that, too: “No! Forget about it!” And then they just walked off.

(WHAT THE HECK is so right.)

I felt a sudden and slight surge of sorrow in my soul when Nick finished telling me his story. Sad, because I am not surprised in the least bit that there really are people out there who demand rewards when they aren’t willing at all to work for rewards.

But then, once my brief bout of depression was over, a heartwarming calm swept throughout my being. I got really happy. I realized how profoundly grateful I am that I’m constantly surrounded by family, friends, and associates who are polar opposites of the “drive-thru people” from Nick’s past. I’ve chosen to spend my mortal existence with people who are driven, glad, and enthusiastic about living, and I don’t plan to stop enjoying life with said positive people.

This blog post is for anyone who has ever shared their talent or dream with me by any mode: face-to-face, over-the-phone, electronically, snail mail, whatever. In other words, this is for just about all of you.

I’ve made a list of many of your talents and dreams. Look at how cool you are:

You are becoming wonderful wives, mothers, husbands, and fathers.

You are becoming successfully blooming entrepreneurs.

You are hunting for jobs and interviewing for jobs. And once you land the jobs, you’re working your hardest to be terrific assets to the businesses. 

You are preparing to graduate from high school, eager to take the athletic, academic, musical, and practical talents you’ve been developing in your youth and utilizing them in further life settings that lie ahead—college or otherwise.

As college students, you’re doing amazing things like student teaching, performing in talent shows and recitals, writing features for your university’s magazine, interning with Senators in the nation’s capital, and helping your team become the semester’s intramurals champs in soccer and water polo.

You are a writer, and your essay is now the interest of a famous author, whose book is about to be turned into a major mainstream motion picture.

You are authoring the second book of your own original trilogy.

You are making your Broadway dreams come true in the Big Apple.

You are about to be an opera soloist for the first time in your life, as part of Handel’s Messiah.

You are playwrights, animators, and filmmakers.

You are building superb websites with your computer programming and graphic design skills.

You are training to become physical therapists, pharmacists, doctors, and engineers.

You are lawyers and lawyers-in-embryo.

You are positively influential singers, songwriters, composers, dancers, athletes, photographers, and politicians.

You are supporting your choice presidential candidates, traveling to Colorado to help the campaigns roll along.

You are chefs.

You are nannies.

You are teachers.

You are accountants.

You are aiming for pilot’s licenses.

You are fashion and interior designers.

You design and build beautiful houses.

You compete in the Miss America Pageant.

You want to become veterinarians and veterans.

You are 5K runners, 10K runners, marathoners, half-marathoners, and decathletes.

You dedicate yourselves to protecting people, homes, and wildlife from forest fires.

You practice American Sign Language and aid those who are deaf or hard of hearing.

You practice English as your second language. You even just reached your goal of becoming an official U.S. citizen!

You try to make the world a better place by being the best missionaries you can be for your church.

You love your families, and you create happy, warm atmospheres in your homes.

You are excellent grandparents, parents, aunts, and uncles, and you give the best of your love to your little munchkins.

Some of you even had the same dream I did—we all ended up auditioning for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (and we made it in, too—holla!)!

To all of you, thank you for sharing your talents and aspirations with me. The fact that you shoot for the moon and aspire to great things inspires me to do the same. I thank God every day that I have you. Keep shooting, keep aspiring, keep hoping. It’s inspirational. Truly.

The Magic Words

Fresh chocolate chip cookies of the most delicious recipe lie upon the metal cookie sheet atop the stove in the kitchen. The little 4-year-old kid sees the cookies and exclaims: “I want one! I want one!”

You, as the adult in the house, would love to let the darling child enjoy one of these marvelous cookies, which were prepared with love. When a small child acquires access to such a cookie, usually a huge smile stretches across their face. What adult in the right mind doesn’t get a melty heart whenever they see such a smile take place?

BUT… You don’t just hand over the cookie, do you? Did the kid say please? Here’s how this particular scene often goes:

“I want one! I want one!” says the kid.

You remove a cookie from the sheet, hold it out to the kid (but just barely out of their reach) and ask…

“What do you say?”

The kid ignores the question, and just keeps their tiny hand outstretched, still looking eager.

“What’s the magic word?”

Again, no response from the kid besides some excited panting!

“What. Do. You. Say.”

You’re starting to sound slightly sterner, but you maintain your gentility. After all, this is a child. Be gentle with them.

“Pleeeeeeeeease!”

The kid finally says it.

“Very good. Here ya go.”

You smile and hand them the cookie.

“NOW what do you say?”

There’s one more magic word the kid should offer up.

[Cricket chirps for a second]

“Thank you!” answers the kid.

Success. You’ve taught another round of the “what’s-the-magic-word” lesson. Stop for a moment and think about why we, as adults, teach this lesson to young children. Why do we teach this? Is it not because we want them to develop the wholesome “Please & Thank You” habit and solidify it in their own lives? That’s precisely why.

But as we grow older and become more ingrained in the world, we become more hardheaded. Some of us become less polite with others because we think we somehow deserve more respect, so we demand more respect. Personally, I think a lot of us—including myself—are sometimes guiltier of this than we give ourselves credit for.

Each one of us is a giver and a taker. We give a lot, much of the time without reaping a thank you. We take a lot, much of the time without thinking to say thank you.

A few lessons can be learned from this. The taker’s lesson: just do a better job at remembering to say please and thank you, regardless of how small your taking was. Givers are happier to help humbler askers than the askers who never say please, and they always love to hear sincere thanks.

The giver’s lesson: even in cases when you don’t get any thanks for your efforts, don’t stop giving. Wise advice from the Holy Bible: “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” (Paul the Apostle, Galatians 6:9)

As an active businesswoman in the business world, I’ve learned from personal instances that please and thank you are both greatly appreciated and incredibly welcome. Especially during stressful days when you seem to be far more “giver” than “taker,” a genuine thank you can turn your world around.

May we each do better at practicing what we preach to small children, by making sure we, too, as adults, “mind [our] Ps and Qs.”

Count Your Cursings

Hello. This is a geode:

Life is like a geode. When the geode is examined too shallowly, it’s just a bleak rock. Break it open, though, and look closer at it. You’ll realize that it’s a remarkable object that possesses much beauty.

Read on.

Mankind’s current mortal generations live in times that are considered by many as dark, dirty, and dreary, both figuratively and literally. Hard times abound. People disappoint. Some people hurt your feelings, whether intentionally or not. Sometimes you just want to go home, find a corner in your favorite room, roll yourself up into a ball, and cry. It’s healthy to let yourself have a good cry. But once you’re done with your crying session, do the simple exercise that I like to call “Count Your Cursings (Then Count Your Blessings).”

Once upon a time in the month of August, I was overwhelmed with stresses and heartaches that never seemed to quit multiplying. I had called my mom, cried practically hysterically to her, and vented out all frustrations into the ear that lay upon her cellphone. After the phone call, I tried to calmly think calm thoughts for a few minutes. That decision to meditate was one of the best ideas I ever had.

My conscience told me to count my blessings. I took that prompting a step further and recorded my cursings first, so I could define the full inventory of stuff that was making me ornery. As soon as I finished the cursings, I moved on to recording the list of stuff that made me smile.

The results: “bad list” was nine items long; “good list” was 53 items long. Fifty-three. Nearly six times as long as scrawny lil’ “bad list.” How was that even possible, when almost all aspects of my life seemed utterly awful at that point in time?

Life is like a geode. Dig deeper into everything happening to you by getting into the swing of counting your blessings. Do so, and you will have embarked on a pleasantly slippery slope. As for me, when I cracked open my geode, I couldn’t dam the river of happy memories to save my life! Happy memory after happy memory after happy memory.

(Today I played "Count Your Cursings (Then Count Your Blessings)" again, and the counts were 51 good, 3 bad. SEVENTEEN times more good than bad! Can you top that!?) 

TODAY'S PEACEMAKING POINTER IS: Play "Count Your Cursings (Then Count Your Blessings)" if you're feeling blue. Chances are your "bad list" will be blown out of the water by your "good list," and sunshine will drown out your blues.

"She's not the easiest person to get close to. There's a WALL there."

Three nights ago I caught myself in the act of being engaged in a brief yet interesting conversation with three friends. We’ll call them Peter, Pauline, and Mary (since they were a boy, a girl, and another girl who was my own roommate).

Peter and Pauline each, in turn, asked me “Do you think I’m rude?”

I said “Do you want my most honest opinion possible?”

They said “Yes,” so I proceeded forth without hesitation to offer them my most respectful yet honest opinion.

Both of them actually received this same basic answer from me: “I never thought you were rude. However, I did sense a big ‘wall’ between us when I first met you. Some people who perceive you might take that wall as a message that you are indeed ‘rude’ because they can’t find ease in interacting with you.

“Depending on the person perceiving you, you may come across as intimidating” was my bottom line.

And then my roommate Mary chimed in and said “Alison, I don’t think you can ever be intimidating!” You had to have been there. It was a hilarious interjection, and it caused all the room’s inhabitants to laugh instantaneously at the truth of Mary’s statement. As if I am ever hard core and unbubbly!

Mary and I chatted later that evening whilst we prepared to retire from the day. We talked about different ways to deal with people who always seem to place “walls” in front of themselves. We can either assume that this sort of people is a rude people simply because there’s a wall, and just forever believe they’re rude and forgo ever trying to become friends with them.

OR we can give them the beloved “benefit of a doubt” and believe that they’re truly trying their best to be kind, and that they even are fully aware of their wall and are earnestly seeking to tear it down.

TODAY’S PEACEMAKING POINTER IS: Try to be a person who gives the benefit of a doubt. Keep trying to be kind to the person who seems to have constructed a wall designed to block your friendship. I personally believe that, more than likely, that person isn’t trying to strictly limit the number of friends they can have. More than likely, they’re not trying to shun you and keep their friend-count at an all-time low. It’s human nature to want love and wholesome relationships.

Mind you, it’s okay to not actively seek to become the person’s “BFF.” But I do ask you to always try to be at least a civil and genteel acquaintance. Do not turn away your kindness from that person, and do not believe that they are rude if they haven’t actually deliberately done or said anything rude to you. If they haven’t actually proven to be your enemy, don’t be antagonistic toward them.

I’ve put my own advice to the test. Remember when I said that I sensed walls between Peter, Pauline, and me? I kept being kind, and whaddaya know—we’re all friends now, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we became better friends as time goes on. It’s all a very common tale, and I’ve seen other examples of it. Have you?