Cynthia Anderson's Blog, page 7

Loss

Dayne taught me we are all the same. As a young man, Blake completed two years of missionary service for our church in South Africa. It was early in his mission when he attended his first funeral. His missionary companion explained the African tradition of all the men at the funeral helping to fill in the grave while the women sang. His companion said, “It doesn’t matter who you are, or how expensive your suit is, you grab a shovel and help fill the grave.” And so, two days after his birth, w...

Loss

Dayne taught me we are all the same. As a young man, Blake completed two years of missionary service for our church in Africa. It was early in his mission when he attended his first funeral. His missionary companion explained the African tradition of all the men at the funeral helping to fill in the grave while the women sang. His companion said, “It doesn’t matter who you are, or how expensive your suit is, you grab a shovel and help fill the grave.” And so, two days after his birth, we buri...

"Lift" One Another in our Divine Roles

Let’s talk about how important it is that we lift one another. Now, you’re all probably thinking I mean lifting one another figuratively, or spiritually. But no. Being the ballroom dancer that I am, I’m going to speak to you about actually physically lifting someone. As a ballroom dancer, I have practiced a dance style called “Cabaret.” In this style, there is a partnership, or sometimes a team of partners, performing various lifts and drops throughout the dance. These lifts are not just a fe...

Mealtime Mayhem

One night, when I couldn’t think of anything to make and didn’t have the energy to make it anyway, I came up with the idea to have our first ever “make-it-your-own dinner.” I told the children in a flash of inspiration, “Let’s have a make-it-your-own dinner!” “What does that mean?” they asked. Making it up on the spot I said, “It means you can have anything for dinner as long as you can make it and clean it up.” “Can we have cereal?” (My kids love cereal.) “Sure,” I said. Through all three fl...

All Women Are Superheroes

I have always enjoyed superheroes. I mean, they are “super” and they are “heroes.” When I was in the fifth grade, my friends, Mickey, Kevin, Bill and I would go out at recess and play “Fantastic Four.” I, of course played the part of the “Invisible Woman” and in one or two recesses each day, we saved the world, got captured and rescued each other several times. That was, until I was replaced . . . by Tammy (something I am still bitter about to this day). Back then, I thought of superheroes we...

Family Campouts: Making Memories

Henry jumped into the boxcar, and Jessie gave him the pine needles. He made four beds in one end of the car. “This side is the bedroom,” said Jessie “What will the other side be?” asked Bennie “The other side?” asked Jessie. “Let me think. I guess that will be the sitting-room, and maybe some of the time it will be the kitchen.” . . . . . . [Jessie] took the string out of the laundry bag and tied one end of it to a tree. The other end of the string she tied to the boxcar. This made a good clo...

Mothering Just Got Real

"Mother" was my dream job from the time I was little girl, followed closely by "librarian." I loved books and I really wanted to wear a sweater around my shoulders, held together by a pretty sweater clip with my glasses hanging from my neck on a chain, just like the librarians I had seen at school. (Alas, I didn’t know that I would have perfect eyes until I was 50.) However, a sweater clip aspiration notwithstanding, being a mother was always my first choice. Regardless of my desires, I lacke...

Reframe our Measure of Success

(Excerpt from the chapter "That Time I Shut the Day Down") Most years, Rich takes our children, William, Eric, Daniel, Caroline and Michael, some grandchildren, and sometimes their friends up to the Uinta Mountains in Utah. They put up camp along one of Rich’s favorite fishing lakes: Wigwam Lake. Rich gets up early to fish and the kids go climb up the mountains. A favorite mountain of theirs is called Eccentric Peak. This mountain and others in the area don’t have defined trails and are cover...