Thoughts and stories, by Pal

It was 150 years ago that the transcontinental railroad met at Promontory Point in Utah!  Here is a bit of history of that historic occasion, from LDS Living.    Uniting East and West: Latter-day Saints and the Transcontinental Railroad by Fred E. Woods  | May 10, 2019 Makes You Think When the coast-to-coast telegraph was completed in Salt Lake City in October 1861, Brigham Young sent a clear signal to President Abraham Lincoln: “Utah has not seceded but is firm for the Constitution and laws of our once happy country.” Less than eight years later, on May 10, 1869, hundreds gathered at Promontory, Utah, to witness another coast-to-coast completion. The driving of the last spike of the transcontinental railroad reverberated continuity to a once broken nation. 1 Railroad enthusiast Asa Whitney had strongly asserted that the Union Pacific Railroad would bring the nation “all together as one family, but with one interest—the...

This article from LDS Living has so much wisdom in it!  It has made me think a lot! 4 Ways What You Think Is Humility Could Actually Be Pride by Julie de Azevedo Hanks  | May 02, 2019 Mormon Life Pride is often referred to as the universal sin. From the perspective of Latter-day Saint theology, this seems pretty accurate; pride caused Satan to rebel against heaven, pride led to the downfall of ancient civilizations, pride is the driving factor that has caused evil individuals throughout history to come to power, and anyone who has studied the Book of Mormon has probably heard of the pride cycle. However, for this discussion, I’d like to move away from the archetypal, “big picture” idea of pride to focus on the perspective of it as an individual characteristic, that is, of personal pride. It seems that certain patterns of pride are easy to identify. I think that one of the reasons that pride is so difficult to manage, ...

Family Counselor: How Parents Can Avoid the Destructive Messages We May Be Sending Our Children Without Realizing It by Christy Kane PhD, CMHC  | Mar. 23, 2019 Makes You Think Mormon Life The other day I was in a grocery store when I noticed a small child giving his mother a run for her money. As I watched the two of them, I could tell the mother was getting very tired; and in a moment of desperation, she directed a few unkind remarks toward her small son. As she did so, I wanted to say, “Please don’t. You may not mean what you just said, but your little boy will believe you! If he believes you, and such exchanges between you and him continue, I may find him in my office years later as a teenager or a grown man, wondering why he is such a failure and why he is never good enough.”  I think sometimes we forget how very powerful words are. For example: • a stirring orator raises a crowd to their feet in momentous accolades • a funer...

This is a lovely little true story that shows how much a word of encouragement can mean to another person, especially a teacher!  A great story! It’s the Simple Things That Matter Most By Daris Howard  · April 23, 2019 Sign up for Meridian’s Free Newsletter, please  CLICK HERE The end of the semester was busy with students complaining about their grades and wanting to know if there was any way they could make up for their lack of diligence during the semester. I was feeling quite tired and sat down in my office chair to rest. That was when I noticed an envelope that had been slipped under my door. I picked it up, opened it, and a letter fell out. I started to read. “Dear Professor Howard, I am Richard Hampton. It has been a couple of years since I took your calculus class, so you probably don’t remember me.” I paused and smiled as the memory came back. It started in a very basic algebra class, one that students usua...

I enjoyed reading this article in Meridian Magazine so much, I thought you readers would enjoy it!  Serendipity is something I haven't studied much! How to Evolve from Control Freak to Friend of Flow By Richard Eyre  · April 24, 2019 Sign up for Meridian’s Free Newsletter, please  CLICK HERE Editor’s Note:  This is the second article in a four part series about a new Happiness Paradigm that replaces the attitudes of control, ownership and independence with their more spiritual alternatives.  Read the first overview article here. Our Addiction to Control The term “Control Freak” brings to mind a certain type of person—a type none of us want to be, but that many of us feel that we are becoming. Oh, how we long for  Control .  We try to control the events of our day by making lists and checking them off.  We try to control our children by disciplining and rewarding them.  We try to control our destin...