Gossamer Threads

Today I'm sharing (with permission of the author) a Facebook post.  You can see the accompanying video on our Gossamer Threads Facebook page. The author is a former student of mine.  Kids graduate, and they leave the places where I have daily contact with them, but they don't leave my heart.  And some of them stay in touch.  As I scrolled through my news feed, I could see immediately that she was upset.  And then I watched 5 minutes of wonderful bravery, as she was vulnerable enough to let people see her like this and help other people to understand more about what it is like to live with a mental illness.  On one of her worst days, she was still educating people about mental illness.  This is how we bring it out of the shadows.  This is how we destroy stigma.   Here are her words: Thank you for your love and support! I am okay!!! And thank you all so much for the heartfelt outpouring. For everyone looking to my folks for info they r...

Last night after a wonderful weekend of tai chi, I opened Facebook.  The first post in my newsfeed said only, "Me too," but it didn't take much scrolling before I understood what it meant. Since then, the posts I've seen have, as a whole, been both horrifying and beautiful.  I sat crying this morning as I read the stories of my friends brave enough to share more than just "me too." "Me too" is horrifying because it is universal.  My friends list is made up of people of many races, religions, nationalities, political parties, and economic situations.  This is not a liberal or conservative issue.  It's not something that happens more to women who believe in God than those that don't or vice versa.  It is not about rich or poor.  So many of my friends from every walk of life typed, "me too." But the beauty in this movement also made me cry. The graphic design friend who created an avatar that women could use on Facebook. The frie...

A friend asked some wonderful questions yesterday on Facebook. This morning, I took the time to answer.  Because this topic is so important to the mission of Gossamer Threads, I decided to share it here as well.   Lori wrote: " If you are so inclined to contemplate, I'd love to know your thoughts. Three-part question: 1. What does it mean to truly listen to another human being? 2. Have the majority of us ever properly learned how? When it comes to deeply-held belief differences, (politics, religion, football, music, etc) in conflict (in conflict is the key here) I am pretty sure the answer to #2 is no. I am being realistic (not pessimistic?). However. 3. Are there ways to listen, understand, empathize, and respect other deeply held beliefs when they are in direct conflict with yours? If so, what are those ways? Definition of key terms in this context: Listening: different than hearing. Listening is an active process where the listener makes a conscious decisi...

At the beginning of May 2016, I began a project of consciously looking for beauty every day. And I started taking pictures of what I found.  It began with flowers, but then included rocks, trees, garbage, clouds, snow...basically anything that struck me as beautiful.  Although I don't always take and share photos daily anymore, not a day goes by that I am not touched by something beautiful.  Not a day goes by that the world doesn't remind me of how incredibly connected we all are.  Not a day goes by that I don't feel peace and love, at least for a moment.   This beauty teaches me on a daily basis.  Last Christmas I created this as part of a gift, combining what I learned from the trees with some of my favorite pictures of them. Unashamed of her need for rest, she dons her red dress and boldly declares, "I will return!"  Shedding all she can no longer sustain, another beauty is revealed, a deeper beauty born of scars and her twisting, turning, an...

Several years ago, struggling to figure out what I believed and where and how I fit in, I began a thought experiment.  I had been taught that Jesus was the Savior for many worlds, so I asked myself, “What would the gospel look like if we peeled away the events and people of our world?”   The results included a pretty bizarre Mormon sci-fi story and a one words answer to my question: Love.   Everything emerges from and leads to love.  That is the gospel, plain and simple. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."   John 3:16   "He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep."  John 21:16 "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By th...

Welcome, friends! Gossamer Threads is a place where beauty and the vulnerability of sharing our stories weave connections that support and sustain us. When we started Gossamer Threads, we made a choice to start small with just the Facebook page. And now, Gossamer Threads will pick up where another of my writing opportunities left off. For the past 3 years, I've had the privilege of being part of the blog team at Exploring Sainthood .   My work there has been about sharing my spiritual journey.  In August, the decision was made to end that blog. I considered reviving my old personal blog, but the writing I'm doing now doesn't seem to fit there anymore.  But it does fit perfectly at Gossamer Threads. Over the next few weeks, I'll be reposting a few relevant things originally shared at Exploring Sainthood, and the next Gossamer Threads post will be one that was written with ES in mind, but never published. Thank you for joining us here, and once again, welcome to Gossa...