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I anticipate the chance to fast monthly as a church and as an individual.  It's taken me many years of being an adult to fully appreciate the power of fasting--and to ignore the difficulty in refraining from eating for a full 24 hours.  As a young adult, I would remember that Fast Sunday was the very next day, I would gobble down all the food I could muster and come up with a laundry list of things for which to fast.  Thinking back on it, it reminds me of the Christmas and birthday lists my kids give me before any holiday.  Here are the things I would like--please give me as many of them as you can.  It's not being spoiled or entitled--it's just letting me know what's important to them and what they can actually use in their lives.  As a parent, I appreciate the lists.  However, there's something more to fasting. I guess the difference comes in that my kids know better than I do what they need in their lives at the moment, but Heavenly Father knows b...

Chief died today.  It's a rather tragic occurrence, seeing he was only seven years old, but there it is--he's gone. Chief was my dream dog.  We had been buying and breeding Aussies for a couple of years, but I didn't like how the pups were turning out from Dash.  Either their hair was too short, or their ears were too big.  So, I contacted the foundation kennel for Aussies, Las Rocosa, submitted an application for a puppy and waited a couple of years.  I was hoping for a black tri male, but when they told me they had a red tri male, I didn't hesitate.  The kennel had named him "Little Red Man" which while not politically correct, described him perfectly. I'll never forget when we took him out of the crate at the airport.  He had a thick sheeplike coat, and his eyes were alert and intelligent.  He could learn a command in a day ("kennel" was his best one).  He quickly became the alpha male dog, showing everyone else that he was boss with b...

This past month, I had the chance to get up and perform again!  My friend, Jennifer Olsen, has a piano student whose father happens to be the choral director at a local junior high (not my former school, Forsythe Junior High, but the rival junior high, Slauson).  He was looking for an accompanist for the seventh and eighth grade holiday concert, and he contacted me.  With only five days before the concert, I was a bit nervous about the music, but c'mon, it's junior high choir. For several years now, my confidence in being able to play in public has waned.  Basically my confidence in just being a human being has been flushed down the toilet, so it made sense that my musical abilities would come into question in my mind too.  But with the new, empowering experiences that this past year has given me (and especially moving to a new place), I wanted to start believing in myself again. One thing that has always held me back is my belief that I need a diploma hangi...

There are a lot of difficult things about moving, but there are also some really great bonuses.  I've always felt badly about leaving friends behind, but I've not only anticipated, but I've looked forward to reinventing myself each time.  There's something liberating about going to a place where nobody knows me (both the good and the bad), and it's a fresh start. Boy-o, if I ever needed a fresh start, I needed one in Pennsylvania.  While I had good doctors, a terrific hair stylist, and a cleaning lady whom I sure I will never find again, I didn't have many friends.  In fact, I'd go so far as to say that I had a lot of acquaintances, but nobody who would take me out to lunch, or listen to my struggles, or know when I needed some help.  It was a very lonesome feeling.  Too, people had really bad impressions of me which is partly my fault and partly theirs.  I really just wanted to move away so that I could start over.  I've certainly learned more ...

I've recently found that podcasts are a great way for me to spend my time on my way to and from work each day when I'm not talking to Mama. The main one I listen to is from a sportswriter I have enjoyed for years named Bill Simmons. While he mostly writes and talks about the NBA, his podcast is more wide-ranging in its cultural scope. He recently had Bryan Cranston, the lead actor from the TV show Breaking Bad, on. While they talked a little about his experience on the show, their discussion turned to how he got started in acting. He went to college to be a police officer, and ended up taking an acting class for some credit and found that he loved it. He did that for a couple years, and eventually reached a point where he realized that he needed to decide if he was actually going to try and make acting work for him. He and Bill then started talking about how the two of them got into their respective fields, and they had three points that really hit home for me: 1. You have to...

This past weekend, I had some fun opportunities to step in as a pianist/organist for our ward.  While nine times out of ten, musical experiences move along without a hitch, it's that one time out of ten that nearly gives me a heart attack and sticks in my mind for years to come. I remember once playing up on stage with a string trio or quartet, and when I went to turn my page, all of my music went flying off of the piano and onto the floor.  I quickly got up, picked up the music, sat back down and continued playing as if nothing had happened.  I remember seeing the faces of my fellow musicians, all trying to keep from busting out laughing. Soon after learning to play the organ at age 15, my mind decided that a THIRD verse of "Called To Serve" existed and I continued playing into that imaginary verse during sacrament meeting.  The chorister at the time had no idea what to do and so just kept conducting as if there WAS a verse.  When I realized something was w...

One of my wishes when we moved back to Michigan was to attend a performance of The Messiah at Hill Auditorium.  I went as a teenager back in the day and not understanding what it was about and not knowing what to expect, I found it extremely boring.  However, I have since bought a recording with an accompanying libretto, and I've looked forward to seeing a performance of it for many years. I asked both Mark and John if they would like to go.  They said "yes", but I could tell it wasn't something that was really important to them.  Since we are pinched financially, I couldn't bring myself to buy tickets, and in all honesty, I figured I'd waited so many years to see it that what was another year. I could hardly believe it when a woman from our ward called me and said that she had two tickets to The Messiah, and we didn't owe her anything if we decided to take them.  She said she had prayed about whom to give them to, and my name came to her mind.  No jo...

Yesterday, John was interviewed and featured on a local AM radio station.  He's a new physician in the area, and Chelsea (the town where he works) wants to get the word out that he's here and seeing patients.  In fact, a woman from the Chelsea Chamber of Commerce was on the radio also, singing John's praises and reminding the town itself how much he is needed. The woman who interviewed John actually owns the radio station and has obviously lived in the greater Ann Arbor area for her entire life.  She started the show by introducing John as someone who has "come home".  Not only did she explain that he was an Ypsi High graduate (class of '84), but I got a shout out as a Pioneer graduate (class of '88), and even more, she allowed him to detail how he ended up coming back to Michigan. It was crazy, hearing, as John put it, the circuitous route that brought us home to the Mitten.  He did a great job, being succinct in how he explained it, and yet it emphas...

Back in high school, I was required to take one of two classes.  One option was "Debate", and the other option, the one that I chose, was called something else.  Yep, I can't remember the name at the moment, but speaking in public and debating with others was not something I relished.  So I chose Option #2.  It was basically a class where the teacher brought in a topic of the day, and we hashed it out as a class.  For those of us who were terrified to say anything in front of our peers, it was a safe class to sit and just listen.  It's funny to think how much peer judgement and lack of support at home affected my personality, because no Kennedy now (especially myself) can keep from raising their arm in any class. The class was only a semester long, and for our grade, we were required to present a final project about any topic we chose.  It was basically a chance for us to present something like the teacher had been doing for the semester, and if the ...

The last three years have been a study in faith for me.  I believe that if faith was a university subject, I would have a degree in it by now.  I've shared my thoughts along the way, but this will possibly be the last post about it, because, to put it simply, it's hard for me to believe anymore what I have been taught about faith. "Ask and ye shall receive.  Knock and it shall be opened unto you."--Jesus Christ "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth."--Jesus Christ "If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you."--Jesus Christ "But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."--The Apostle Paul "In moments of fear or doubt or troubling time, hold th...