Thoughts and stories, by Pal

I just love this article!  It is a feel good article!  This is one of the places our Humanitarian donations go!  I'd love to serve a mission like this if I were younger!     · May 24, 2020 Cover image: Children at Rashen School in Erbil, Iraq. LDSCHARITIES built new bathrooms, donated a computer, printer, and playground equipment. If you were asked to name one of the most notoriously unstable regions in the world, Syria would likely be the first country to come to mind. Images of bombed-out cities that resemble disaster films, as well as chilling pictures of refugee children washed up on the shores of Greece have circulated the globe ever since the start of the Syrian Civil War in 2011. The raging violence has resulted in an estimated 450,000 deaths. As problematic as the death count is the refugee crisis. Syria has become the face of the modern crisis, with 5 million refugees who have fled the country and 13.5 million people who ...

This is a most unusual time to be living, it seems.  But although it is new to us, this type if problem isn't new to mankind!  Read blog # 1185, posted back on March 15, 2020, and read about when my mother was 10, and they had the flu epidemic in 1918.   And they didn't have computers and the helps we have now!  Will our teens be the same after the pandemic? By  Jody Young Steurer  · April 21, 2020 I recently read an opinion piece by CNN columnist Scottie Andrew, titled “Why Teens May Never Be The Same After The Pandemic,” where she highlights the losses teens, especially graduating seniors, face as they wrap up this school year in quarantine. [i] She’s right. Our graduating seniors may never be the same after the pandemic. All 2020 classes, proms, and graduations have been cancelled. End of year sports banquets, final dances, music performances, and academic competitions have all suddenly disappeared without warning. And he...

This touching article tells how much loving and kind caregiving for those who are disabled -- can do for the person being served, and those serving! The Mark of a Good Caregiver By Joni Hilton  · June 19, 2019 Sign up for Meridian’s Free Newsletter, please  CLICK HERE I’ll just say it: I think we need a National Caregivers’ Day. Not only should they receive boxes of chocolates and bouquets of flowers, but friends should step in and take the entire day for them, if they can. It’s hard to imagine any job more exhausting, more tedious, more without a moment’s relief, than constant caregiving. And with the rising numbers of elderly and disabled, caregiving is falling upon more and more shoulders. If you haven’t already experienced it, you may.  As a matter of fact, I feel such admiration for this unheralded group that I wrote a tribute song to caregivers for my upcoming musical about cancer. And this demanding task doesn’t compare to all the...

Thanks to LDS Living, this Letter to Mormons can open our eyes to things we may not have thought about.  There are many kind, good, honorable people around us who desire and want our friendship, without our preaching! I hate to admit, in the 1960's and 70's when I was raising my children, I could have been guilty of the attitudes here expressed.  But we were always living in a neighborhood which was almost 100% LDS.  I do have some great non-LDS friends whom I love with all my heart!  This has other applications -- possibly to children of inactive LDS parents.  I know we all desire our children to stay close to the Gospel, and marry within our faith.  It requires prayer and compassion! A Letter to Mormons: Mom of Another Faith Shares Powerful Message to Members by Renee Tumolo  | Aug. 10, 2017 Makes You Think Mormon Life The following has been republished in full with permission from   laughsli...