Thought

Random Thought Friday

September 26, 2026 Melodies of LightLeave a comment

Maybe the last Friday of the month will be random thought Friday. We’ll see. For today, let’s see where this goes…

On my heart: “God meant it for good.” This is in Genesis (the Bible) where it talks about Joseph who was sold into Egypt. All the challenges Joseph went through were difficult for him, but the summary of the story in some ways is that one line- God meant it for good. All the bad stuff? It was leading to all the good stuff. Suddenly the entire land is in famine and he is in a position to help his family and many, many others. He was able to experience SO. MUCH. GOOD. – not despite the bad things he experienced, but because they led him to the good things. Fascinating. Is there something in your life that’s been really hard? Is it possible that “God meant it for good” in your life? My experience tells me if it’s true for Joseph and I, it must be true for you too.

On my counter: 6 zucchini and many cups of rhubarb. My garden is still giving and I’m loving it! Tomorrow I’ll be canning strawberry rhubarb jam (YUM!!). I’ve already frozen many bags of garden tomatoes, zucchini, etc, and done one batch of salsa. I think after the jam I’m going to make some fruit leather and maybe some applesauce! What fun!

On my playlist: 2 songs have been on my mind this week. One is a song that (I forgot) my mom introduced me to the month that I got engaged. It really was a turning point for me in deciding to marry my sweetheart. It had the sweetest message, talking about how I will be there for you in whatever situation, emotion, or struggle you may be in over the years- I want to be that person for you. My Mom recently reminded me of my experience hearing it for the first time and I thought it would be fun to share here!

Also, I have been listening to a Nichole Nordeman song (sung by Nathan Pacheco) that has been instrumental in helping me process a child leaving home. What a weird experience this has been. I am so SO proud of my oldest spreading his wings and doing wonderful things in the world. There’s nowhere else I’d rather him be right now. The joy and excitement I feel from his successful launch and wonderful experiences so far are incredible and sweet. Also, there are moments that it feels like the more independent he becomes, that my heart is gradually ripping out of it’s place. Can your heart bleed from emotion? It sure feels like it sometimes. It hurts. I find myself glowing in his growth and having a hard time shutting up when someone asks about him (I have to tell you all the great stories and brag on him endlessly!). I also have been grieving – waves of emotion well up from so deep inside of me that it can feel like I’m about to throw up. The feelings overflow into tears, or sometimes make me feel jittery or like I need to curl up in a ball. It’s hard to find words to express what I feel and I find myself reaching for something to help me feel better. Sometimes that’s music. Sometimes it’s a hug or someone to cry with. Sometimes it’s chocolate. Lots of chocolate :). I’m grateful for many good friends and a wonderful family that have been a huge support as well as a place to brag anytime I want to. Overall? I’m functioning just fine (don’t worry, I don’t spend most of my time curled up on my living room floor crying…) but the waves of emotion are as challenging as the highs are wonderful. I’ve been told that’s how it goes with your first leaving home. And I’m sure I’ll survive. For now this song has been helpful in processing the feelings. And if you ask about my boy you’ll probable get an earful. He’s doing wonderfully, and we are so proud of him.

On (in) my view: This sunrise was breathtaking this week. A little hug from heaven on my morning run. It filled my heart.

Okay that’s all for today, folks!

Happy weekend!

Love,

Laura

Spiritual Growth

September 18, 2026September 18, 2026 Melodies of LightLeave a comment

It’s been a week already?! Wow, time is flying. September is well on its way and here I am for another Friday post.

Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about spiritual growth. How can we tell we (or someone we love) are growing spiritually? And if we want to grow more, what does that look like? In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, we just went through an adjustment to our meeting schedule. We have 1 hour where the entire congregation meets together, and then instead of 1 meeting that alternates every other week (either Sunday School with all adults together, or split into classes for men and classes for women), we have 2 meetings so that each week we meet for Sunday School for 25 minutes and then in our classes for another 25 minutes. The meetings go quick and we are out of there before we know it.

With less time for any particular lesson or topic, I’ve been thinking a lot about conversion-(that state where our heart is progressively becoming more like Jesus Christ and turning toward Him). How can I use this meeting schedule change to deepen my conversion to Jesus Christ?

Our Sunday School President (shout-out to Sister Loftis!) prepared a beautiful bookmark recently helps us use the time during the week to do work on our conversion to Jesus Christ and prepare ourselves for our next set of instruction/discussions on Sunday. She wrote this:

Prepare your heart before Sunday

As you study this week’s Come, Follow Me, ask Heavenly Father to help you recognize something that will bless someone else.

What touched my heart? -an ah-ha!” moment, -a verse that stood out, -something I hadn’t noticed before

What is the Spirit teaching me? -a gospel principle I need to strengthen, -an invitation to change, -a prompting I received

What am I still pondering? -a scripture I don’t fully understand, -a question I’d love to discuss, -a connection I’m still exploring

What will I do? -one way I’ll follow the Savior this week, -one truth I’ll apply in my life, -one person I can bless

This week the Savior is inviting me to….

I found this set of thoughts SO helpful, and I’ve found myself pondering how similar our personal study is to practicing the piano. I’m a piano teacher, and if the student isn’t practicing between lessons (or only one or two days), we can do very little at the lesson to progress further. Lessons become a time to oversee the practice that should have been happening before getting here! Over time that gets really boring, and the student loses interest in learning the instrument. The minimal growth takes all the fun out of it. However, if the student is practicing most days during the week, by the time the lesson rolls around, they are ready to share what they’ve learned, and they’re ready to take another step. As their teacher I can help them do that.

Spiritual growth can happen much the same way. As we spend time during the week not just reading scripture but studying, asking questions, discerning truth, noticing things we hadn’t seen last time….and then go to church ready to share what we’ve learned with others and take another step forward spiritually, our Sunday experience is that much richer and all of our studies and meetings are directly impacting this upward spiral of conversion to Jesus Christ. Studying spiritual material won’t always feel amazing or enlightening- practicing the piano is like that too. Some of it feels rather routine and monotonous. That’s how it is being human! If overall our efforts are allowing us to come away feeling something, with our hearts or minds munching on something and our desires are taking us toward connection, balance and consecration, we are growing. That light inside us is growing brighter.

I can see more clearly how to be more committed, more diligent in my efforts to study, learn, grow, and share and come closer to Jesus Christ. I’m excited about the spiritual momentum I’m feeling and the opportunity to continue to share my feelings with my family, my church family, and now you!

Love,

Laura

Thought

Gardening is kinda like writing songs!

September 11, 2026 Melodies of LightLeave a comment

Hello all you friends! You made it through a 4 day week (Labor Day)….how was it?

Today I’m thinking a lot about gardening. And song writing. And how they’re similar- at least we can draw parallels between them.

It may have had something to do with shredding 6 huge zucchini’s and preserving 100 tomatoes while listening to a creativity podcast! Our garden has been so generous this year and it has been an honest delight. In case you’ve never thought about it (or have and want to walk with my thought process!), here are some ways that they’re similar!

IDEA 1-GARDEN:

I have been going out to my garden early in the morning to discover the raspberries that have ripened overnight. What a miracle! What used to be green stalks with some leaves now are giving me big, juicy, deep red raspberries? Are you kidding me? (Are you salivating yet?!). No, ripe beautiful raspberries don’t pop up through the weeds just for funsies without any effort on my part (although I suppose that’s huckleberries for you, but I have more to say about those yummy berries another day…). They required planting in a place where they would get a lot of sunshine, and watering, and weeding, and picking them, and if there a lot of them, preserving them to enjoy for a longer period of time (or sharing them!). But as I put in effort that was possible for me to do, then these ripe berries ripened one after another and it felt like a miracle. And really it was.

IDEA1-SONGWRITING

Songwriting feels much the same to me. I go up to my songwriting space early in the morning. Some ideas have ripened overnight- and they feel easy to “pick.” Some projects need some areas addressed. Some problems I can solve, others aren’t solveable yet- at least not that I can tell. I can tell that some of the work I do, and often a lot of it, is made possible because of the preparation that has gone into developing my songwriting process and skills over several years. The berries I pick now are getting bigger, jucier, better. Not every single day, but much of the time.

IDEA2-GARDEN:

When I pick a bunch of tomatoes and put them on my counter (like I did yesterday), I have a wonderful satisfying feeling. I grew these! Wow! Don’t they look beautiful! At any moment I could slice one and put it on a salad or in a sandwich! But they don’t last forever. I can stick them in my fridge to buy me a little time. But if I don’t use them or preserve them in the next several days, mold will begin to grow. That which came from the ground will go back into the compost pile to return to the soil and nourish it for next year. A process for preserving allows the produce to benefit me and others for much longer than a week or a day.

IDEA2-SONGWRITIING

Sometimes, right before I go to sleep, a melody drifts through my mind. “Wow, that’s a neat one!” I’ll think. It’s tempting to leave it at that (on my counter, right?)….but if I fall asleep, I can almost guarantee that it will be gone by the next morning. Reluctantly, I often use my phone to light the notepad by my bed. I jot down a few notes and then go to sleep. (This is similar to buying me a few days in the fridge!). If that’s where I leave it, it has quite a short shelf life. After a few days or weeks, that chicken scratch will be hard to make sense of and it will likely end up in the garbage eventually. It requires a process to take a small idea and preserve it into a song. That takes time, dedication and effort, but what a beautiful result when it is preserved into a song that can be shared.

IDEA3-GARDEN:

Walking in my garden almost always makes me think about my Creator. I am amazed at what will grow with a little water, soil and sunshine. It’s clear that I did the thing (plant, water, weed) but I didn’t do all the things (make these things grow). It reminds me of being pregnant. Our efforts are so small compared to the development of the lungs and brain and nerves and all the things inside this little being in our belly. We did a thing, but we sure didn’t do all the things! My Creator is generous- how much He offers with comparatively little effort! My Creator is loving- I feel like he gets so much joy out of delighting us! What a kind thing for Him to do. And I feel a connection with Him as I work with him, side by side, in this experience of creation. Something is now physically present (tomatoes, zucchini, raspberries, etc) that didn’t exist before. Wow. I’m so grateful to learn from Him.

IDEA3-SONGWRITING

Writing music makes me think about my Creator. With efforts in learning chords, and lyrics and song form, something can come together and have meaning and movement that was not there before. I can do a thing- but I’m not doing all the things. Ideas come to my mind and heart that I didn’t ask for or think of all on my own. Solutions sometimes feel offered when I feel stuck, getting me to the next step. I feel nudges to try this or that, develop in a new area, or seek out new connections. With His touch, my reach is bigger than my circle of influence. Sometimes a song comes alive and can touch hearts, even change lives. As I create, I ask for assistance from my Creator. I need his help to navigate the path of creation. As I listen to both my own desires and His Guidance, I develop, play, delight and grow. With my preseved “fruit,” I share and lift and strengthen. What a gift to get to create alongside my Creator. I am so grateful for this way to learn from Him!

Now back to preserving these tomatoes….

Love,

Laura

Thought

Certain Women

January 19, 2025 Melodies of Light1 Comment

Happy Sabbath, all!

This week has been full of so many thoughts! One of my favorite has been about “Certain Women.” There is a General Conference talk by Sister Burton that talks about regular, ordinary women in the bible who were witnesses of our Savior’s ministry. Here’s a large excerpt from her talk:

“The New Testament includes accounts of [certain] women, named and unnamed, who exercised faith in Jesus Christ [and in His Atonement], learned and lived His teachings, and testified of His ministry, miracles, and majesty. These women became exemplary disciples and important witnesses in the work of salvation.”

Consider these accounts in the book of Luke. First, during the Savior’s ministry:

“And it came to pass … that [Jesus] went throughout every city and village, preaching and shewing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God: and the twelve were with him,

“And certain women, … Mary called Magdalene, … and Joanna … , and Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto him.”

Next, following His Resurrection:

“And certain women … which were early at the sepulchre;

“… When they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had … seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive.”

I have read and passed over the seemingly unremarkable expression “certain women” numerous times before, but recently as I pondered more carefully, those words seemed to jump off the page. Consider these synonyms of one meaning of the word certain as connected to faithful, certain women: “convinced,” “positive,” “confident,” “firm,” “definite,” “assured,” and “dependable.”

As I pondered those powerful descriptors, I remembered two of those New Testament certain women who bore positive, confident, firm, assured testimonies of the Savior. Though they, like us, were imperfect women, their witness is inspiring.

Remember the unnamed woman at the well who invited others to come and see what she had learned of the Savior? She bore her certain witness in the form of a question: “Is not this the Christ?” Her testimony and invitation were so compelling that “many … believed on him.”

Following the death of her brother, Lazarus, Martha, the beloved disciple and friend of the Lord, declared with what must have been great emotion, “Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.” Consider her certainty as she continued, “But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee.” She further testified, “I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.”

We learn from these sisters that certain women are disciples centered in the Savior Jesus Christ and have hope through the promise of His atoning sacrifice.

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2017/04/certain-women?lang=eng

I am in charge of planning the music for Stake Women’s Conference coming up we have been thinking about including this song as part of the program:

Beautiful, right? As I thought about who would be the best individual or group to sing this piece, the thought occurred to me that we could do a type of flash-mob musical number…picture this:

Many lines of the song could be sung by individual women who stand up where they are, sing a line, handoff the microphone, and then walk to the front. Some of the lines (like” I am certain that he lives”) could be sung all together. As women throughout the room stand and sing one by one, and the group in front testifying grows, it will help us all see ourselves as those “certain women”- who are imperfect, yet capable of carrying out a great work. We are the certain women of our time!

There are times that this responsibility to be in charge of the music has felt stressful or overwhelming. Today my heart is full of joy thinking about orchestrating such an experience for the women of our area, and how fun it could be to gather with other women to prepare and enjoy spending time together.

Love,

Laura

Thought

Empowering

January 12, 2025 Melodies of LightLeave a comment

If I had to choose one word about the process of building our home (we’re hoping to be in some time in February!) it would have to be “empowering.”

This weekend I finished laying vinyl flooring in our downstairs bathroom. I had a little help on two tricky spots, but other than that, I did it all by myself. Maybe I’m revisiting my toddler years where the cry is constantly “Myself! Do it myself!” Regardless of where the impulse to try is coming from, I’m loving the feeling of breaking out of what I previously had thought my limits were.

It’s not conscious- but we end up drawing a box around ourselves, defining what we “can do”- and by default, what we cannot. And then an opportunity comes along and we get to decide if we’re up for an adventure our of our box. Sometimes that yes is easy, sometimes it’s harder, but it’s usually worth it.

Well, the bathroom floor is done, and fortunately that’s not the end of my opportunities- with the house or otherwise. For now, two more bathrooms await, as well as painting projects, trim projects, staining projects, landscaping projects, moving-in projects….and a whole host of others that I’ll discover along the way. Sometimes the opportunities present themselves rapid-fire (hello, this year!) and other times I have to work a little harder to find an adventure. But I’ll be forever glad that I said yes to this huge house-building adventure and many little projects along the way that took me outside my box to discover a little more about my potential.

Happy Sabbath!

Love,

Laura