I am a dad of five. I am a papa of two. I am blessed by the love of my angel Elisa. We have an awesome family. We have a growing business that helps others. We live in Cache Valley, our most beautiful place on earth. We have a beautiful home nestled on a quiet street in Hyde Park. We love our neighborhood. We are blessed to be surrounded, literally and figuratively, by wonderful people who have chosen to see our…
Why is it hard to talk about God? Perhaps we shy away from the discussion for fear of offending another in their beliefs or coming across as attempting to proselyte another, which can be a real concern when living in an area such as I do with a dominant religious culture. Perhaps we feel God, faith and/or religion is much too personal to share. Or we may feel we are on the other side of the proverbial coin in that…
Sometimes a wrong turn turns out to be the right turn after all. This was the case Sunday afternoon when Elisa and I took the wrong exit off of I15 and were awarded the opportunity to view an unknown treasure in northern Utah… A replica of the Vietnam Memorial Wall. Dedicated in 2018 in Layton, Utah, the replica is 80 percent of the original size of the monument in Washington, D.C. and is reported to be the only one of…
I grew up with Uncle Marvin being part of my life. He and Aunt Connie lived just down the street. While technically my great-Uncle, his son Richard, Stitch as we called him as kids, was my age and we were cousins who grew up together. Uncle Marvin passed away October 28 at the age of 95. Read his obituary here. Uncle Marvin was the local milkman when I was a kid. He worked for Ideal Dairy, bottling the milk and…
There was a time I thought no one saw me. I felt invisible. I felt like the good in the world bypassed me and only the bad found me. I was invisible. An unknown. A cipher. If you haven’t yet heard of the word “cipher” in this context, it means “a person of no influence; nonentity.” I first learned it from the short film “Cipher In The Snow.“ That’s the story I told myself for a long time. But like…
If in hindsight we can see our trials of yesterday were exactly what we needed for today, perhaps we can create a new perspective on our trials of today. I shared this thought with a friend last week and it has really stuck with me. You know, kinda like “hindsight is 2020.” I realize by now the whole 2020 vision thing is totally overdone, but that doesn’t mean it’s not accurate. Perspective is more than just a perspective, it really…
Les and I took the wonderful opportunity this weekend to travel to visit our son, Brenin, who works on Cannon Air Force Base outside of Clovis, New Mexico. It has been a while since we’ve seen him and our parent hearts needed to spend some time with him. I was a bit apprehensive about the trip because this was our first time flying post-COVID. Because of the lengthy quarantine period we have all been through and the civil unrest I…
When I deployed to Iraq several years ago, my dad gave me his first year AA coin from Alcoholics Anonymous to carry with me. It’s the coin right in the center of the photo with the Roman Number ( I ) Number One on it. I remember him saying to me, “Son, if I could make it through and survive my first year of sobriety, you can make it through and survive a year in Iraq.” When my dad passed…
If you could go be with God, to “Hie to Kolob,” would not your soul be filled with beautiful peace? Would knowing where the “Gods began” bring comfort and solace? Such is the promise of this beautiful hymn. We invite you to simply feel that peace as Elisa plays this beautiful arrangement by Jason Tonioli. Have a beautiful Sunday. We love you! Les & Elisa
There’s a lie when it comes to grief. We think grief should be done and over with quickly. Others tell us to just move on. And life dictates we keep going, jumping back into our routine after a brief pause to say goodbye. And that’s the lie. Grieving in all reality is a complicated mess. A sticky, gooey mess. In “A Grief Observed,” the quintessential book on the subject, C.S. Lewis describes just how messy grief can be. “They say…