Joyful Seasons of Life

We had a bi-stake womens conference this morning with Ardeth Kapp. If you have never had the chance to hear her speak or read one of her books, I feel bad for you because you have missed out. She had us laughing. She had us crying. And sometimes she had us laughing AND crying. The whole conference was on joy. She spoke on the different seasons we have in our lives and how to find joy in each of them. Everyone, all 700 women, went to her workshop,then we each went to 2 different workshops and we had lunch. We signed up for the workshops we wanted about a month ago, with a couple of alternatives. With 700 women attending, I can imagine what it was like to get it all organized!

My second workshop was Finding Joy Within, given by my very dear friend, Leslie Austin. She is a 7th grade teacher here at Cedar Ridge, plus I have the fortune to be in the same ward as her. I don't get to see her much because she is a Stake Relief Society President in one of the University Stakes. She was as delightful as ever. We laughed so very hard and when she accidently knocked over her glass of water on the podium, I could so see myself doing that very thing. She was awesome about the whole thing as she wiped it up while talking to us still. She talked about learning to own who we are. The good and the not so good and made it all seem so natural to do so in such a humerous way.

My third workshop was Facing Adversity Cheerfully given by Lila Cooley. I chose this one because the name of it sounded very interesting. She did a wonderful job. She showed how sometimes we don't always face things cheerfully, but come around to the cheerfulness after it's over. The joy is in the journey, not the destination. When we reach the destination we are then on a new and different journey, so we should learn to be cheerful in getting there.

I am going to try to put what I learned into practice. I am going to try to laugh more and have more joy in the everyday things. The spilling of milk, the breaking of glass, the typical everyday life as a mortal. I think I might start with the laughing more. What do you think?