My 2018 Challenge:
My 2018 Challenge: 365 snippets of what my mom would’ve considered “Company Towel Worthy”.
Let me explain. My mother was a social media forerunner, but she died 21 years ago. How could that be, you ask? Did social media even exist?
It did. In our bathroom. We lived in a farmhouse with one bathroom. One. It was a narrow room, so, when sitting upon the commode, the bathroom occupant faced the opposite wall where the company towels hung on a towel bar. These were the pretty towels. The towels that matched the decor. The towels we were, under no circumstances, allowed to use. They were for company. And because these pristinely unsullied towels hung there right before the eyes of the occupant, my mom used the opportunity afforded by undivided attention. She PINNED things to the towels, right where she knew we would see them. She POSTED stuff to the WALL she wanted to SHARE.
From one day to the next, one of us bathroom regulars might find the latest Peanuts comic strip that made her laugh or a tidbit of advice from the newspaper. She pinned jokes to make us laugh. She posted definitions of words to increase our vocabulary. She pinned snippets from her etiquette books to sneak some culture into her farm kids. She shared information. Humor. Inspiration. Her favorite photos.
Do you begin to see it? The irony? She would’ve picked up on it right away and rolled her eyes good-naturedly at how the world has progressed from her Company Towels to Facebook and Pinterest and Instagram and Twitter. She was creating memes before anyone had invented the word.
That was a long explanation for my 2018 challenge. My brilliant mother would be 90 years old if she’d lived past her 69th. So I have decided to share one snippet every day - something she would’ve found Company Towel worthy.
Want to know what she’d point out with a chuckle? How much of social media is still read in the bathroom. She knew her audience, after all.
My daughter framed this quote as my Christmas gift. It is how my second book begins. It made me cry. She said it reminded her of me, and also my mom, because she was a woman who knew the way home. My mom would've LOVED it, so it becomes Number One.
Mom believed you had to MAKE it great if it was gonna be great. People don’t spontaneously “have a nice day” just because we greet one another that way. She sent me into the world with a reminder: I control my reactions to the events of the day and I can make it great if I try.
You won’t find these words in the "Memory Girl." I wrote them years ago, but last September when I was editing the manuscript I removed them, along with several more. Why? Because I’d just lost a grandson and a mother-in-law and the wound on my soul was too new, too raw, to listen to my own words. This mortal journey we’re on is wrought with thorny places that prickle as we pass. I'm grateful heavenly reunions await those we send ahead.
I'm thankful for January and its untapped potential. Mom gave me this poster in college, with the instruction to discover more of my gears. You've just been given 2018--a whole year's worth of fresh days to discover more of your gears. Find your untapped potential! Mom would be proud.
Today is my youngest daughter’s 20th birthday. How has it been 20 years since I gave birth? Time flies. Fat lingers. Mom loved to share recipes, so I’m sharing my favorite peanut butter cookie recipe. It’s from the fantastic Our Best Bites. If you haven’t utilized the awesomeness of their recipe index, you’re missing out. I’ve never tried a recipe I didn’t love! These cookies are flourless, which is important to the Birthday Girl, because she has a gluten intolerance.
Day Six: Mom followed the adage “Saturday is a special day. It’s the day we get ready for Sunday.” I actually polished my shoes on Saturday when I was little. Now? Saturday is Smatterday. Each one is wildly chaotic and vastly variable from the last.
Day 7: He rested on the seventh day. I’ve always appreciated the fact that we learn Heavenly Father rested on the seventh day. He values rest. We should, too! We’ve made it through the first full week of 2018. Who’s up for a Sunday nap? #MomsCompanyTowels #SundayNaps #OneWeekIn
Today I’m mulling over the benefits of travel, because I’m sending a new group of students to Jerusalem. So, for today, here is my favorite travel quote, by Mark Twain, because I couldn’t explain my opinion any better.He wrote “The Innocents Abroad, or The New Pilgrims' Progress” in 1867, chronicling his adventures on board the ship The Quaker City as he journeyed through Europe and the Holy Land. Twain got it right. Travel opens the eyes to the worth of all human beings.
I arrived at the airport before 6 A.M. to send off our students on a huge semester-long adventure, and thought of one of my characters as she stood at the gate, making a decision to follow her heart or stay in her comfort zone. Airports and their gates are magical portals, opening to worlds unknown. It may have been the early hour, but the thought made me feel like jumping through a portal to an adventure of my own. How about you?
Moving Day! Yesterday at work, we sent the students off to Jerusalem, and today we have some travel of our own to accomplish-from one building to another-with a whole moving crew in tow. We’re moving into brand spankin’ new digs, and it’s gonna be awesome when we’re finally moved in. In the meantime, I’m reminded of something Mom used to say: Blessed are the flexible, for they shall never be bent out of shape. We’re rollin’ with the punches and goin’ with the flow. Mom would be proud!
Our mortal journey is fraught with thorny places that prickle as we pass. At times, we are the prickled. At times, we are the balm. Let us hurry through the prickles, and be steadfast as the balm. Today is Human Trafficking Awareness Day. If my mother were alive to learn of the atrocities these victims suffer, she would have reached out, however she could, to be the balm. Now, it’s our turn. Be the balm. #MomsCompanyTowels #StopHumanTrafficking #BeTheBalm
Thomas Monson spent a lifetime setting an excellent example of how to make life worthwhile. For those who've been influenced by that excellent example, we know his good works stand as a better tribute than anything that could be written. If I imagine him reading his NY Times obituary, I see him flash that trademark mischievous smirk, before immediately brushing off any offense, because he knows just how prone to error and misunderstanding we humans are. I will miss that smirk.
Last summer, a resident at my mother-in-law’s new care center stopped to welcome us. My mother-in-law wasn’t happy. She wanted to be home. The woman pulled an iPad from her Jazzy basket and said, “If you have photos of your home, you can go back anytime, but instead of returning to an empty house, revisit the happy times.” I was impressed. We struck up a conversation, and I learned she visited a new place on the planet every single day. She’d “seen” the world via the internet.
