Nature Walks and Talks

Dear Meg, Isn't it funny that summer is the hardest time to get anything done? With all those extra hours in every day you'd think that we'd find time to...say...write our blog. I think that when I have to buckle down and get the kids to school every day, my momentum goes from lazy daisy to high gear. So on this Labor Day I'm declaring that I'm back in the game. I loved your post about brothers, and I just love your brothers too. Since we are focusing on what we have I'll skip bemoaning my lack of brotherly friendship growing up and give thanks for the brothers that came into my life later. My step brothers had their own kind, funny, inspiring influence on my life, however at-a-distance our relationships were. And Brandon has always been a delight! He was so tiny and ten when Ryan and I first started hanging out and now he's 25 and a beautiful person! I'm so lucky we get along so well. Your brothers have always treated me like family which brought so

Dear Mal,     Well looks like summer killed our blog for a while.  That's ok,  there has definitely been a lot going on with both of us.  I've been thinking about what a topic could be for my next post to you,  and I came up with something that's been on my mind, and what better for two girls to talk about than men? More specifically, brothers.      When I get down in the dumps,  a tender area for me is obviously that I'm down one sister in this world.  I sometimes have to avoid social media. People with posts of them and their sisters makes me either angrily-jealous, or feeling depressed and invisible. However,  I was having one of those moments a couple weeks ago,  when I thought "What about my awesome brothers?"     This probably is funny being directed at you because you grew up with sisters,  but this can be counted to all the man in our lives; husband's,  cousins,  friends,  brothers in-law, etc. Men are so great.  They are brave,  creative,  acti

Dear Mal,     I find it kind of hilarious that it took me like a week to make the time to respond to your blog about how busy we are and how we need more rest. I've been so busy! Which our society really does need to stop using as some kind of badge of honor. I did listen to that radio west episode, and loved it.   Last weekend,  I got to make a road trip out to Portland, and it had all the ingredients of soul satisfaction: beautiful scenery, fresh air, hiking, family. great food, sunshine, and some good road trippin tunes. Going someplace new and being able to soak it all in was the rest that I needed.  I often find that I need a rest from the mundane. I think that's one reason I love listening to podcasts so much, they are always teaching me something new and different,  even if I'm doing something old and the same,  like laundry, or cleaning babies bottoms (which honestly I don't mind,  Ivy's fat little baby bum is just adorable, ha ha).     Now that I'm

Dear Meg, Yesterday was my 10th anniversary! Wahoo! Also, it snowed today. Crazy Utah spring! Also, it's been exactly one month since I last wrote to you on our blog. Unrelated observations. And there's the first part of my letter, which gets me out of deciding what else to title this one, thank goodness, because it's late and my brain is fried!!! Ok, so today I was listening to our good friend Doug Fabrizio and he was talking with the scholar Alex Soojung-Kim Pang about the importance of rest. Great episode, by the way, if you need something to listen to. It made me think about my battle with rest. As moms we need rest from life, don't we? It's taxing taking care of a home, paying the bills, (trying to have enough money to pay the bills), buying the food, making the food, dressing, undressing, bathing, changing, and cleaning poop off the little ones, AND on top of all of that, just doing normal things like exercising and showering while making sure tho

Dear Meg, Your heart is so good. It takes only a moment of relief from your own burdens to get you ready to conquer the world. (And, of course, you were always concerned about others even when you were suffering.) The quote you shared is a new concept to me, but it resonates. We do seem to rally around suffering and shrug off joy. We all crave peace and joy, and those of us lucky enough to have a good amount of those things in our lives feel a desire to share that with others. But when we see the depth of the suffering in the world it can feel indulgent and selfish to enjoy our blessings. It's important to remember that hope brings solutions, despair only brings more despair. I deal with this so much in my own struggle with depression. I tend to see what's wrong and want to solve it. The more I focus on the problem, the larger it seems. What really gets me out of the rut is to find something I can do and do it with all my heart. Whether it's sitting in the sunshine, pla

Dear Mal,       I'm writing this on my phone while laying on my couch. It's the first 10 minutes of silence I've had all week.  Even despite the business of motherhood,  I always have a lot on my mind.  For the past year of my life,  I often come back to the same question: With all the suffering that always exists in the world,  am I allowed to be totally happy?     I have a memory from my childhood of being in my backyard.  I would jump on my trampoline, feel the blood pumping through my veins, and the breath coming and going from my lungs,  and I would stare at the blue evening summer sky.  I would think "This must be what heaven is like." Moments like this happened to me all the time.  Thinking about it,  I could follow those same steps now, and probably really enjoy myself.  Yet for me, at least at this point in my life,  it would probably be somewhat tainted by the bitterness in the world that my adult self has tasted.    I get so frustrated,  I want to he