Splash Professional Writing and Mentoring

Splash Professional Writing and Mentoring Make your personal splash in life, by unwrapping the gifts and talents you already have access to. S

02/25/2018

The Savior was not combative, he was not defensive. He did not come to destroy lives, but to save them.

Do you love your neighbor and have compassion for them, even when they do things that you don't like or don't appreciate? Do you love your neighbor when they hold views you don't agree with or participate in things you don't approve of, or otherwise fail to meet your expectations?

A man who spoke at church last week, talked about his career as a football player at the University and in the NFL. He played 12 games a year, but he spent 353 days a year training for those 12 game days.

You and I may not be football players, but what do you spend your days training for? How do you show up on game day?

Do you spend your days criticizing others, railing on people, defending your point of view by making other people small, or complaining about how unfair life is?

Do you spend your days looking for ways to serve people, sharing your gifts, multiplying your talents, helping people meet their needs, or helping people see their value? Do you see your own value?

No one is perfect, we all get angry, we all have problems. It's not what happens that counts, it is how we interpret what happens to us and what we do about it.

I have spent years in programs that support me in accepting accountability for my results, and helping me to see my own value. I don't always like what I experience, I don't always like how I feel. I don't always like my own attitude, but I know who I am, and I know whose I am. I know the only person I have the power to change is myself. More often than not, I even have to ask God to help me to change myself.

02/22/2018

The Widow's Mite:
Recently I have been posting about the positive things people have done for me over the years or the positive ways they have shown up for me. People who were family, or people I adopted as family, because they served as role models in my life.

I have been listening to the S. Michael Wilcox Collection, and the most recent talk I finished was on seeing ourselves and others as the Savior sees us. Most of us are looking through the glass darkly. He talked about how he envisions a life review with the Savior. Being asked a series of questions, being shown the things he did right, talking about his own perceived failures, and having the Savior respond to the perceived failures with "I don't remember that."

What if the kindness someone shows you is their widow's mite. I have a list about a paragraph long of the positive ways my brother has shown up for me or done for me. What if those were widow's mites for him? Some people are raised in loving families who give kindness and love freely, they may or may not have worldly wealth, but they have an abundance of love in their hearts. Others are raised in abuse and neglect. Maybe their parents did the best they could, after being raised similarly. That never excuses such behavior, but it goes to say that a naked person cannot give you their coat.

I listened to the confession of the person who nearly became a school shooter, and he said the solution is LOVE. The person who reached out to him and had a group of friends over just for him, and made him a blueberry, peach pie saved his life, and possibly the lives of many others.

If the smallest kindness can change a persons life, then the smallest measure of gratitude toward a person who manages to show up or do something good, may change their life too.

I never looked for any of the good things a particular old roommate did. She never looked for the good things I did. Instead, we found fault continually with each other. Irritations festered, and mistakes were viewed as atrocities. Eventually, even the good things were undesirable because they were from her. But what if the cake mix she gave me, because she didn't like it was her widow's mite. What if her marking up a Book of Mormon for me really was done with some measure of love? If that measure of love is all she has to give, and it is acceptable to the Savior, that is what matters most.

That is one way to see ourselves and others the way the Savior does, to acknowledge their widow's mite.

02/21/2018

"It all comes down to loving and forgiving." This is what a friend of mine said in relation to the group activity I participated in after reading the book, Loving What Is, by Bryon Katie.

Things have been a bit rough for me, and I found myself depressed and hiding. A few things were getting me down there for a while, mostly new twists on old stuff. The same friend noted one particular element of my challenges, by saying, "As long as you don't forgive her, she owns you."

A Course in Miracles (ACIM) teaches that we create what we defend against, or perhaps that is Marianne Williamson, Return to Love. She is a teacher of ACIM, so either way it's related.

People will believe what they want to believe. So as long as I feel the need to defend my reasoning or version of anything, I know I have not fully forgiven, nor do I adequately love those involved. I can relate what I took from an experience to the best of my knowledge, but I cannot alter anyone's perception or what they choose to take away from it.

When a person's journey is one of acknowledging and working through pain, they just need to be loved. At the event I attended, we were given an exercise to practice unconditional love for the next 30 days with ourselves, someone we love, and a stranger or someone we are not very fond of.

That also corresponds with being a millenial warrior, because our true enemy is not the person who provides a source of irritation, they are there to facilitate our growth and learning. That is why, it all comes down to loving and forgiving.

02/15/2018

My favorite song from a Disney movie is called "Be Our Guest" from Beauty and the Beast. When the reboot came out last spring, it was not astonishing to note the similarities. It may not have been animated but it uses Performance Capture to turn transform people for their role, while still showing the personality of the actor in the character they portray.

Lyrics:
Be our guest, be our guest, Put our service to the test,
Tie a napkin around your neck Cheri and we provide the rest.
Soup du jour, hot horderves, why we only live to serve.
Try the grey stuff, it's delicious,
you don't believe me, ask the dishes.
They can sing, they can dance, after all miss, this is France,
and a dinner here is never second best.
Come on unfold your menu, take a glance and then you'll
Be our guest, Be our guest. Be our guest!

It is one of the few songs, really have committed to memory. It came forth readily, because I love to serve people. In all the callings I have had within various singles wards, the commonality is mingles, preparing and serving food, I also serve food twice a month on Saturdays as a volunteer. Although I have not particularly gone out of my way to start a restaurant or catering business, I have volunteered with a few, on many occasions.

I love the word Cheri, it is French for Darling. I love to bring out the best in people. Unfortunately, I have no say in what comes out of them. If you poke at an orange with 100 toothpicks, gooey, sweet orange juice will ooze out. If you poke a bag of dirt, then grains of dirt will make their way through the holes. People all have unique personalities. We all have moments when we ooze gooey, sweet goodness, and other moments where dirt makes its way through the holes that make up our attitude or outlook on what we experience. Dirt is required for anything to grow, so just love the people who give you dirt anyway.

One of my current roommates, recently said "wow, I didn't know I was going to get so much free food when I signed the lease." People connect over food, and I love to facilitate connection, whether they are connecting with me or others in the community. It's wonderful to have people to share our joys and sorrows with.

As part of my current calling, I serve a meal for a small group of singles once per month. A menu is decided on in advance, and a week before the meal is to be served, I study recipe variations and write down a list of what is needed. Sometimes, I am still comparing the recipes, when the ingredients are already on the kitchen counter, and people are present to help put it all together A lot of times the end product is a variation of it's own; However, sometimes I do my best to keep it as traditional as possible. Especially with Ethnic food.

For this last event, I had three recipes for German Cheesecake. I made my own Quark at home a week in advance. While I was on the road, I stopped at Siegfrieds to get more Quark, and butter cookies for the crust. I ended up finding a Cheesecake help packet and vanilla sugar there as well. I ultimately, followed the recipe on the Cheesecake help packet.

This last week was the first time, I had exactly the right number of servings. Not so much that people could get seconds or even take some home, but just enough. Luckily, I supplemented the main dish with a salad. The main dessert was 7-Layer bars. I also brought out Ice Cream. The Cheesecake was my save the best for last entree.

Even though this isn't France and the Cheesecake was German, my best friend Julie wanted to take some home and she called it "a slice of heaven."

The menu for March last year was corned beef and cabbage, and I totally befuddled the corned beef, but a dear friend rescued the meal, by going to the deli for meat at the last minute. It is tentatively on the menu for next month. I have made it for myself, and had it turn out excellent, so I know what to do differently this time to make it great.

12/24/2017

I have a keyboard warrior visiting my page, so I have disabled messages for now.

12/23/2017

My cousin Kandus expounded on the term "perfect" for me tonight. She has been participating in A Course In Miracles for three years now, and attends a weekly group.

To be perfect is to be present. That is where time touches eternity. It is where prayers are answered and miracles are wrought. All of us have moments in time when we are perfect. The rest is nonsense. The Savior of the world was consistently present throughout his mortal sojourn.

A mind pre-occupied with past thoughts and the emotions that result from the meaning assigned, cannot fully enjoy the present moment. Being anxious about the future also prevents one from living fully and making the most of this limited existence. Instead, the person fraught with distress because they see something that is not there, and dig themselves deeper into the mire.

In addition to my work in belief breakthrough, I have become a student of A Course in Miracles. This makes my life better and better every day. My peace of mind is mine to maintain, and I help others to breakthrough their limiting beliefs and live more fully in the present moment.

12/18/2017

I have been thinking about all the things I am grateful for. Recognizing what is out of my control, and practicing daily belief breakthrough to strengthen me as I face the challenges in my life, so I can create a miracle.

My three gratitude mantras that drive my purpose are: God is guiding my life. My friends and family are praying for me. And, I care enough to try again tomorrow.

I am grateful for co-workers with a sense of humor, who crack me up. co-workers who pray with me at the end of the day. My brothers and sisters in Christ who bring joy to my life from across the street or across the globe.

What other people think and feel or how they use their agency is out of my control. How one perceives what I do or say it out of my control. It only has the meaning I attach to it.

Here are a few of the present, positive, and powerful beliefs I have been creating with my mentor Wade Baldwin. include: I allow myself to trust. I choose to walk in the light. I create a life of significance.

I have been working on making my home more beautiful, by eliminating the clutter in my room and in my mind. I make room in my life for more of the people I want around me, and the things that will serve me, as well as the people I love best. My activity on this page will gradually increase with time.

Meanwhile, I challenge you to discover the gratitude mantras that guide your life and find ways to make your life more beautiful every day!

12/01/2017

I keep a little notebook on what I have learned from different people who have passed through my life at various stages. I found it today, when I was taking everything off my utility shelf to move it over 2 inches for reorganizing a few things in my room. I looked at several of the pages, but the note that stood out was from a former mission companion who I served with when I first went to Zehlendorf in West Berlin, before she went home. " Don't go into things with your own set of expectations." and "Three rules of disagreement: (1) No raising your voice. (2) No past irrelevant transgressions rehashed. (3) No blaming, take responsibility.

I've been thinking for a while about what I am ready to let go of. Whether it is something physical and tangible or something I hold onto in my mind or heart or both. It's a lot like a puzzle, gradually, each day something else falls into place. Today as I worked at my full-time job, I pondered things that are being rehashed for me by someone I associate with, and things that I am rehashing to them, or things I have subsequently started rehashing in my own mind. I allowed myself to be with the emotions that were resulting from all the hashing and rehashing until I finally asked the Lord once again to grant me some of his love for the people involved or those affected.

Once I shifted, I received some of the following inspiration:

It does me no good to hate anyone for anything. After all, I cannot change anything about anyone, but myself. I cannot change any part of the past by stirring it up in my mind. I can only change how I relate to it. The only thing that changes the hearts of God's other children, is His love. Hate only keeps me from letting go of my own self-righteous judgments, resolving my own problems, repenting for my own sins, learning from my own mistakes, or improving my own life. Therefore, it is in my best interest to love myself and ALL of God's children. No matter how different we may be, or how much we disagree on things. No matter what someone has done to hurt me or my feelings, whether it was real or perceived, whether it was done intentionally or by mistake, whether they knew or didn't know something that contributed to the damage I desire to hold them accountable for. These things are all in God's hands, He will administer the natural consequences that go with a persons choice of behavior. He will grant me some of His love for those involved, as often as I need Him to share it with me.

So if you are reading this, I'd like to close with a quote from the book On Fire, by John O'Leary. "I love you, and there is nothing you can do about it!"

Address

Logan, UT
84321

Opening Hours

Monday 10am - 1pm
Tuesday 10am - 1pm
Wednesday 10am - 1pm
Thursday 10am - 1pm
Friday 10am - 1pm

Telephone

(801) 792-0720

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Splash Professional Writing and Mentoring posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share