Gregg Garber’s Garberisms

These are the words of Gregg Garber, with whom I shared an office from August 2023 until March 2024. I kept always kept a document open in my computer or a note pad open in my phone when Gregg was near to capture these gems. Enjoy the essence of Gregg!

Ann Lewis

Stud! You belong on a tire in a Wyoming snowstorm!

It’s like pushing a pig through a python.

My mind used to be a steel trap. Now it’s a steel sieve.

You’re a hedgehog. . .

It’s a spiritual goose (boost) in the middle of the week (Book of Mormon class).

They’ve turned a nickel job into a dollar enterprise.

Hit me with it.

I’m in the doom loop.

You bone head.

There’s a skunk in the woodpile.

I’ve been surfing through the files.

It’s like falling off a log.

Lay it on me.

That’s a pain in the bootox.

That’s one of those sleeping dogs we ought to kick.

It’s wonky.

He bootstraped himself right back into the gospel.

Pull a Starsky and Hutch and get out of there!

I’m making a short story long.

Sis Garber is a celestial being. In heaven there is no time.

His German isn’t first cabin.

He can knock it out of the park!

He said wilt thou and she wilted.

You’ve got to tow the line.

We’re the poster children for the road to hell being paved with good intentions.

That’s a left handed compliment.

He’s seized by the fears.

It was like punching a marshmallow.

That dog just won’t hunt here.

Boots on the ground wouldn’t hurt.

A definition of lunacy is doing the same thing again and again, getting the same result.

Flogging a dead horse.

We’re just following the train down the tunnel.

We ought to jawbone with them about it.

Johnny on the spot

In like flint.

Cowabunga! Fungus among us!

You are frozen like an ice cube (on the screen).

This dog ain’t gonna hunt.

I say things like they’re factual and they’re not. I live in my own reality.

It’s a beautiful bluebird sky day.

The cat’s out of the bag.

Come to me when you need an anchor instead of a balloon.

This is taking us on the millrun.

I’ve had my nose to the grindstone so long I should have a trench in my face.

Beeeber-ages (beverages)

I’ll be dipped!

When you’re cool (wearing sun glasses) the sun never sets.

In vending machines: flavored sugar trash.

He’s a rock star.

I’ve gotten too caught up with the alligators.

We’ve left that way in the rear view mirror.

I lie like a rug.

If you click on that (in the computer), you’ll end up in the Hotel California.

We’re getting to an age were we can blame everything on our age. (But I’ve always been this way!)

That drives me daffy noodle nuts.

That’s a recipe for disaster.

We got you covered lover.

DMBA doesn’t know their elbow from their big toe.

I’ll do just about anything for you but I will not clip you gnarly yellow toenails.

That makes me feel like an old Geezer.

We’ll go around the horn to see that.

Hot rod

What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.

See if there are holes in the parachute.

She’s a real pistol.

Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. When you’re as old as I am, whatever doesn’t kill you Hurts.

I’m walking back into the lair of the bear.

Oh my honkin’ gosh. Prayers are answered!! (Lost passports found!)

H E Double hockey sticks.

They’re playing your song, babe (seatbelt beeper going off).

That was his jig.

He’s kicking you guys to a lower orbit (you have to change apartments).

You get the Dick Tracey award for tracking that down.

We all have feet of clay.

I don’t know that from Adam’s house cat.

From heck to breakfast.

Is the juice worth the squeeze?

Wonkey donkey

I’ll be there in two shakes of a lamb’s tail.

Spendy Wendy parking slots (expensive)

Kawabunga!

You can take everything I know about cooking and shove it into a valve cap.

The thermos knows how to keep the cold cold and the hot hot. I don’t know how it does that.

Well, should we hie to Kolob??

You’re scaring the living heck out of me.

My problem with life is it’s due Wednesday and I get it done Thursday.

We’ve almost broken summer’s back. Fall is coming.

He’s a fast forward kind of guy.

As I’ve gotten older, my filter has gotten huge cracks in it.

You’ll have a friend in me for life. At my age, that’s not saying much.

Mind over mattress.

“Potential Scam,” my favorite caller.

He had a lead foot.

All Indians walk in single file, at least the one I saw did.

I’m as happy as a pig in a peach orchard.

We are all fried (exhausted). It’s like an egg, you get kind of rubbery.

Getting hit with that will send them into next Tuesday.

We had to do a little shucking and jiving.

It just blows their doors off,

Buck up little camper.

You’re not all that and a bag of chips.

That would drive him nuts.

We’re going to canter through this pretty quickly.

That wasn’t even good enough to be horrific.

Even a blind squirrel finds an occasional acorn.

What’s shaking?

He’d ridden off the rails.

When asked, “Where’s your better half?” EG responded, “I’m sitting on it.”

Instead of answering YES, he asks: Are bullfrogs waterproof?

He broadcasts the soup out of it.

When it’s done, it’s in the can.

They’re punching way above their weight class.

That’s what would carry the freight.

Talk about the mouse that roars. (Talk about bringing the Church out of obscurity.)

They’re still like free range cow punchers out here.

It’s a honking big file.

Not the pepto poncho (Tab choir pink robes).

I’m Starvin’ Marvin.

I’m stickin’ my nose where I shouldn’t.

I’m stepping out of my lane.

We don’t know about piddly.

I’m coloring way outside my lines.

I’ve been to that hotel 1000 times.

You were volun-told.

I didn’t connect the dots.

We had to leave at o’dark thirty.

He’s a wrung out dishrag.

This sounds like a dirt alert (gossip).

We’ve invited everyone and their rubber duck.

I’m going to waste away to a ton.

Low wattage. Senior moment.

When the cats are away, the mice should play.

They march to the beat of their own tuba.

Cheryl and I both failed miserably to marry rich.

Hang a left.

Who’d a thunk.

We just fell off the turnip truck.

If you smoke it’ll kill you till you die from it.

It’s a real chink in my armor.

We ate out of a bucket with a shovel.

Look who the wind blew in.

Don’t trust me with power equipment or technology.

I’m taking my murse with me (man purse).

Gone from zero to hero overnight.

I’m behind the power curve this morning.

We’re stretch, stretch, swivel, swivel, blink, blink at about 10:00 p.m. (Go to bed)

There’s a special circle in hell for Elder Garber who procrastinates.

She’s in that neck of the woods.

I need to spiff it up.

We’re blowing 400 Euro out the tail pipe.

The road to heck is paved with good intentions.

Are you home? Physically, yes. Mentally somewhere between heck and breakfast.

I don’t give a fig about that.

The OGC has a shredder that would emulsify a brick.

I just sold you down the river, dear.

Our object is to make you sorry you said that.

All hands on deck.

Abdul, the butcher = the barber.

I’m probably plowing a field that’s been plowed before.

You asked for a nickel’s worth of information and I’ve given you a dollar’s worth of rhetoric.

There aren’t enough bread crumbs in a box to lead you to where you need to go.

This may not be their first rodeo.

I hadn’t used that in a coon’s age.

The barber always needs a haircut.

Kick me to the curb!

Those guys are swimming with 50 sharks every day.

Put a nickel in me and there’s no end to what may come out.

About flying: You hop in the aluminum tube, spend some time, then hop out in a different country.

It’s just your basic Bah Humbug.

So, girlfriend, we’ve got to boogie.

We’ll be as popular as a burp in church.

They’d walk through busted glass for that guy.

Don’t just back the truck up and dump the whole load on them.

That saves us an early morning or late night scramble to the office, and an absolute full-blown linear panic should some technical detail go wrong.

I thought for a minute I had slipped a cog. Those thoughts come more frequently lately.

Crunch all you want–we’ll make more. (From an add for potato chips.)

We’re getting down to the short strokes.

He has no bandwidth.

It’s a meat locker in here (cold).

I’m sweeter than I am smart.

Cheryl: I’m telling our weaknesses.
Gregg: You don’t have enough time.

They would’ve lasted a nano second.

They’re killing the goose that laid the golden egg.

If you put a nickel in me, you can’t get me to stop.

You get all Hell and no direction.

You go in a circle until you eat your own leg.

Where are the holes in the parachute?

Look at the rose on your nose.

It’s a pain in the patoosh.

They’ve got muscle.

It came within a cat’s whisker.

Winna winna, chicken dinna.

It’s just redunculous.

A broken arm is better than a broken neck.

That was a slide around the back door approach.

If we hit something (squeezed into the back seat) we’ll explode like a can of sardines.

Sharp as a marble

Rootin’ tootin’

He could’ve driven a bus through that hole (football play).

I was hoping it was me. (After knocking and entering.)

I make a better door than a window.

About a million things just blew up my inbox.

That’ll be duck soup.

His team always punches way above their weight class.

There’s more than one way to skin a cat.

This is screw loose and wonky.

This is as worthless as a steering wheel on a coffee table.

I make up half the stuff I tell people.

You read me like a book.

That was duck soup.

People have starved to death wandering around on the first floor, lost.
You just wander around until someone finds you or decides to shoot you.

He’s gone from hero to zero in such a short time.

We’re so old we don’t have dandruff, we have dust.

When I get to that point, just push me over the falls.

She thinks she’s Joshua–she can make time stand still.

He’s a little long in the mouth.

It’s blowing sunshine under her skirt.

You got your hair cut! Gregg: “Which one?”

When you’re up to your ears in alligators, it’s hard to remember you came to drain the swamp!

We always worry that’s there’s no gas stations in the extra mile, but there’s no traffic jams either.

That’s just like [potato] chips in the washing machine.

Sometimes you just have to do what you can and try not to can what you do.

You’d be as welcome as a burp in church.

Every gun is loaded and every knife is sharp.

Don’t wait to become a great man. Be a great boy.

The second mouse always gets the cheese.

You can no more teach what you haven’t learned than you can go back to where you’ve never been.

Ain’t mama happy, ain’t no one happy.

It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.

Don’t eat anything that bites back or is still moving.

Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play?

That turned into an absolute dumpster fire!

After someone asks a dumb question: “I don’t know, Is it farther to Chicago or by bus?”

“Nice socks.” (Best compliment when someone doesn’t do well athletically.)  Or if they’re not playing well, “Hit the ball, Alice.”

When kids are listening to rap: “Do you like that better than music?”

Waza waza bo bo tanga!

He’s tighter than the skin on a bean. When his eyes blink, his toes curl.

I’m checking out of this pop stand.

It’s messier out there than a cow pissing on a flat rock.

If that’s your first mistake today, you’re a rock star.

May the bird of paradise fly up your nose.

That (football) tackle rang his bell.

That gal is wound tighter than a cheap watch.

She was gobsmacked!

He could do it with his head in a sack.

It’s no skin off my nose.

I guaran-dang-tee you.

That old program is so bad it sucks like a Hoover [vacuum].

How are you? Stranger than I was the last time you asked.

Her day in the sun was short.

We will be the brightest balls on the tree.

That’s like having a square of toilet paper hanging off your pant cuff.

That’s the spiritual palate cleanser we needed.

Oh my pickin’ snarky gosh.

The classic efficiency has gone the way of the Dodo.

This dog ain’t gonna hunt.

That’s going to be a tough puck.

We have a broken system and a bunch of do nothings.

The luggage came out the poop hole in dribs and drabs.

I’m dense as a fence.

I think we are in the froz-zone.

Stuff around here makes the OK corral look like a square dance.

You’ve got to get on your pony pretty early to get there in time.

When you’re swimming with the crocodiles, it’s sometimes hard to drain the swamp.

It’s a tempest in a teapot.

Little things like little minds.

Fiddlehead Fern.

It’s an overhaul day (Cheryl’s doing some major body grooming.)

I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

Who’s responsible so we can make a VooDoo doll to stick some pins in?

Park your carcass.

She is one plucky little duck.

He’s a led foot Lousy.

I was all giggly and wiggly.

Rosanna Danna

That’s an ant crawling up an elephant’s leg with assault and battery on its mind.

We were in such a hurry we shaved 5 layers of skin off!

The last time I reached into her purse, I lost about 2 fingers!

We’ll canter through it pretty quickly.

Canter through with your nostrils flaring and your hair flying!

Fleet of foot and sure of traction = someone who gets things done.

He’s a kiwi. Prickly on the outside and soft in the middle.

Speeding tickets are given only Monday through Sunday.

I made several tweekoids to the document.

No fancy dancing or spinning any yarns.

They are on the fly.

Pay them no heed.

I’ve been talking like a machine gun.

I’ve agonized and wept over this dozens of times.

They can give you the straight scoop.

We can kick the anthill from here!

As-a-tively pos-i-lutely

It was like stirring’ pudding’ = changing gears in his stick shift VW.

Sit and cool your jets.

My confuser = my computer

On buying a pretzel hanging on a pretzel stand at the end of the day: it was like trying to eat your belt!

Food poisoning: I was in the growler heaving Jonah.

It leapt up and bit me in the shorts.

We are right on ding dang track.

They’re going to be three sheets to the wind.

Ready. Fire. Aim

That warms the cockles of my heart.

We have felt like a lion in a den full of Daniels.

It blew my doors off!

He fell into the shoot with the loot.

Riding down in a crowded elevator: The more there are in it, the faster it goes.

It’s like watching your grouchy mother-in-law go over the cliff in your new red convertible.

That’s a death wish manifest in itself.

We’re an acquired taste.

Peace out!

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Clark’s “Kindness Chart”

A few weeks ago, before Little Lenna Lew was born, Clark made this Kindness Chart.  Every time he does something kind, he colors a heart.

Let’s all be like Clark.  Happy Valentine’s Day!

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Pioneers in the Chatsworth, Durban, South Africa Branch

Three days ago, two beloved pioneer women who were sisters-in-law in the Chatsworth, Durban Ward graduated from this earthly life and went to the Next Place, probably hand in hand.  They were my dear friends when I lived in Durban in 1982 as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Every week my companions and I visited their homes to learn from them and share with them lessons of welfare services and self-reliance.  We talked about things like health and nutrition, finances and budgeting, and providing for our families.  We shared the things we love and that included a lot of good Indian food!

Chatsworth was one of my happy places.  Those were the days during Apartheid, when so many other things separated our lives, but the gospel and teachings of Jesus brought us together in magical ways.

I’ve never forgotten my time in Chatsworth and the friends I made there.  I miss them.  Today I was daydreaming about a time and place not really that far from now, where we will all be together again and can spend time in a warm kitchen filled with the rich aromas of curry and spices and all the things we loved.  We will talk about our families and all that’s happened in our lives since the days we were together.  We will remember our time on earth and the sisterhood we shared here.

One of the richest blessings in my life are the friends I’ve made in many parts of the world.  Sometimes I can hardly wait to bring all of my memories and friends and the places I’ve lived back together in one warm and bright spot.  It will be glorious and I will feel whole.

Until we all meet again, with love from Frankfurt.

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Little Lenna Lewis has Arrived!

I hardly slept last night, knowing that today was the day for Lenna’s arrival.  After delivering 10 minutes after walking through the hospital doors last time, Heidi’s doctors wanted to stay safe and induce her this time, so we’ve known the birth date all along.

This morning the hospital called at 4:06 a.m. to let Heidi know she didn’t need to come in until they called her later in the morning.  That wasn’t what she wanted to hear at that hour.  By mid-morning they were ready for her, just about the time we were heading to bed.  I was so excited, sleeping was hard.

I woke early just as the messages started coming in on our phones:  Lenna was here!!  Born on the 26th at 9:45 p.m. St Louis time.  A perfect and healthy little girl weighing in at 5 lbs 15 oz. and a head full of hair!

What a gift she will be to our family!  What an absolutely perfect gift.  Nothing will ever be the same now that she’s come.  My heart is so full and grateful she’s safely here.

Dr Adam is already taking care of her eyes, keeping them safe from infection.  It really is a miracle, the birth of a child.  So perfect.  So new from heaven.  So wanted and loved.

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Thoughts after visiting Nuremberg’s Nazi Party Grounds

We recently visited Nuremberg and Hitler’s rally grounds. As we spent the day wandering through the different sites, I felt heavy hearted. I felt ghosts hovering because of what happened there–the rallies, the marching, the confinement, and the executions.

  

More than 150,000 prisoners of war, civilians and forced laborers were confined in this place during the war. In 1939, railroad tracks at the Märzfeld Station in the rally grounds were used to transport these prisoners to labor camps, work crews and armament factories.

Prisoners at these rally grounds were housed in camps in extremely cramped conditions. More than 5000, especially the Soviet prisoners of war, died of deprivation, exhaustion, starvation, sickness and execution. They were compelled to work making war materials and clearing rubble after air raids.

For 2,000 Jews from the Franconia region, the Märzfeld Station was the point of departure to the extermination camps. The two largest deportation trains, each carrying about 1,000 people, left on November 29, 1941, for the Jungfernhof concentration camp near Riga (Latvia), and on March 24, 1942, for Izbica near Lublin (Poland). 2,373 citizens of Nuremberg are known to have been among those murdered in the National Socialists’ persecution of the Jews.

These photos give us an idea of what happened at these rally grounds.

Notice the following: Masses of soldiers in a square; Hitler on a balcony; the precision of the soldiers; their looks, their uniforms, their boots; arms uniformly raised in a heil Hitler; personal identity lost in a crowd; swearing loyalty oaths and allegiance; a dictated and universal purpose; threats of death if you turn away.

Now I want you to visualize another place not far from here–the temple.
Oh the contrast!

Could these two places be more opposite?
One based on peace, one based on fear.
One motivated by love, the other by hate.
One to build a Kingdom, the other to destroy kingdoms.
One to serve a God who knows us better than we know ourselves, the other to serve a man who could not care less about you or your personal life.
One where we are invited to sacrifice our all for an eternal benefit, the other asked for personal sacrifice to avoid punishment or retribution.

In the temple, we sit in rows, dressed white. There is no distinction between class, race or nationality. We also raise our arms in unison, but to make covenants with our God, covenants that will bring us peace, protection and happiness.

In the temple, we are surrounded by good people, friends and strangers who are giving their time to bless someone they’ve probably never met, as proxy ordinances are attended to.

In the temple we feel peace, heavenly peace. The cares of the world melt away. Our hearts are lifted, inspiration flows, and we leave more determined to add to the good in the world.

I am grateful to be near a temple and to go there often. The temple saves us and those we love. I feel the contrast now more than ever. I am so grateful to know and follow God’s plan for me.

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If you can alter the world, even by a millimeter, then you can change it.

“The bottom line is this: You write in order to change the world, knowing perfectly well that you probably can’t, but also knowing that literature is indispensable to the world. The world changes according to the way people see it, and if you alter, even by a millimeter, the way people look at reality, then you can change it . . .  If there is no moral question, there is no reason to write. I’m an old-fashioned writer and, despite the odds, I want to change the world.”

—James Baldwin in The New York Times, September 23, 1979. Photograph, also from 1979, by Brownie Harris.

American author, playwright, and Civil Rights activist James Baldwin, New York, New York, 1979. (Photo by Brownie Harris/Corbis via Getty Images)

I often think about why I feel so compelled to write, to journal, to blog, to remember and record.  I don’t know many others who feel they MUST record the things I record in so many places and in so many ways.  I usually don’t understand it either, but when I read this quote, it felt right to me.  Maybe I do it because I have HOPE.  I hope that maybe someday, someone I love will find my words and read a few of them and smile, or feel better, or feel loved, or see something in a new way.

I hope that my words will express love and hope to those who will follow me.  My children, my grandchildren, my great-grandchildren, and beyond.  I want them to know that whenever they read this, I was thinking of them now, long before, on this cold December day in 2023, always cheering for them, wishing them happiness and wellness and all my love.

I hope my words help you see the world in a good and better way.

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“I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun.” –Jane Austin

I would describe my life as “UNFOLDING.” I could not have planned it, or consciously prepared for it. Rather, it’s like it came to me, one interesting experience after the next. When I look back, I see things I began without realizing I was in a beginning. I wonder if I will end the same way, not knowing I’m at an ending.


“As you journey back in memory, you’ll see your life whole.  What may have felt at the time like a series of disconnected and chance events will take on a flow and coherence that only the passage of time could reveal.  You’re able now to see how the consequences of a choice, perhaps made casually, rippled through the years that followed.  You can see how a chance event led to other events that shaped your entire life.  Memory, in short, can reveal the links, the connections–the story–of your life.
It’s hard to exaggerate the satisfaction this kind of insight can produce.  It’s the satisfaction of feeling that your life, whatever happened in it, made sense.”

This quote is from the book called The Legacy Guide, Capturing the Facts, Memories, and Meaning of Your Life, by Carol Franco and Kent Line back (p. 3).

In 2006, I attended a BYU Devotional where Pres. Hinckley told about 10 events or experiences that had had a deep impact on his life.  They were interesting and meaningful to him.  At the end he counseled us to write down our significant experiences and so they would not be lost.  As I drove home, I thought about what things I would put on my list.  Here are a few (added to over the years):

I was raised on a farm, where I had to work hard every day.  Life was taken seriously.  We learned the Law of the Harvest.  We learned not to waste.

I was taught to read on my mother’s lap.  I’ve been an avid and fast reader ever since.

I was raised next door to grandparents I loved. I had instilled in me at a young age a love for my German ancestors and their language.

From an early age, I learned to be physically fit, swimming every day, often year-round.  I was a top competitor, successful in my athletic endeavors, swimming for teams and clubs and playing waterpolo in high school (on the men’s varsity team).  I was a High School All-American swimmer.

1975 I was called to be the Reedley Ward pianist, then organist.  I learned the words and music of the hymns.  I seldom need to use a hymn book anymore.  They’re all in my head.  I sing Alto and can easily pick out my part.

1974-77  At Reedley High I had many opportunities to serve and be a student body leader in school and leader at church.

1976 When I was a foreign exchange student (age 17), I read and then re-read the Book of Mormon cover to cover for the first time, often reading in a Jagerstand in a German forest during the summer of 1976.

1979 I sat alone in the fields overlooking Bethlehem on the eve of April 6th 1979 with my cassette player and Christmas music.  I learned to know the places our Savior walked and taught.  Study Abroad Israel Jan-June 1979.

1981 On a dusty orchard avenue one summer evening in 1981, I felt the Spirit bear witness of the truth of the account of The First Vision as I recited aloud from memory the Restoration discussion in preparation for my mission.

1981-1983 On my mission, I learned to speak Afrikaans. More importantly, I learned to give freely, without inhibition, loving strangers and wanting to share all I had.

1984-1987 When El Nino struck, creating weather havoc all over the world, I spent an entire night on my knees in prayer.  I offered my life to help those in need, Days later I was invited to go to Nigeria where I found my life 1984-1987 serving and teaching others.

1987-1990  COB –worked as an Editor for the International Magazines.  One of my jobs was to remove the “Americanisms” from articles, making them internationally appropriate.  I had learned to see through international eyes.

1989 I backpacked through China in 1989, experiencing the desire others had for democracy.  I left Beijing a few days before students were killed on Tiananmen Square.

1990  Met John on a blind date July 1990.  Didn’t sleep that night.  Saw him dressed in white, smiling.  We knew the first night we would marry.  We talked about it 3 weeks later and became engaged.

1991-1995 Birthed 3 Children, 9 pregnancies.  Broken hearted times.

1998 President of the Utah Valley Quilt Guild–fully immersed myself in the world of quilting.

2001  Took a Family History class from Lindsay Powell (repeated 3 times).  Learned to love Family History work.

2004 Went back to BYU when John’s job allowed me free tuition.  Studied there for about 10 more years, taking more than 80 classes.

2004 Met Roger Minert, German professor at BYU who taught me to do German research and read the old documents.

Extracted 500 years of family names from Grossgartach, ancestral village, organizing everyone into families in my Legacy database.

2007 Met Steve Harper, Church History professor at BYU who opened the world of my LDS ancestors to me.

2008 Met Rick Turley and started doing research for him which led to co-authoring The Theodore Turley Papers.  Learned from a master researcher.

2010 First trip to Ouelessebougou, Mali.  Yearly trips to do humanitarian work after this.

2012 Started teaching semester-long Family History Classes. Had more than 3000 students.

2013 Started Days for Girls in Utah, involved 10,000+ women, raised $100,00+. Worked full time teaching and training women all over Utah, CA, AZ, ID.

2015-18 Mission Leaders in the Washington Yakima Mission.  Learned to love young adults in the church.  Taught, fed and loved 455 missionaries.

2016 Became a GRANDMA!

2019-21 Abidjan East and Bamako Mali Mission, Member Leader Support Missionary.  Returned to my beloved African friends.2023-2024 Frankfurt Communication Mission

2023-2024 Frankfurt Communication Mission

Posted in Ann Lewis, Insights and Thoughts | 5 Comments

For as long as you remember me, I am never entirely lost.

Ann Laemmlen Lewis, 2014

“When you remember me, it means that you have carried something of who I am with you, that I have left some mark of who I am on who you are. It means that you can summon me back to your mind even though countless years and miles may stand between us. It means that if we meet again, you will know me. It means that even after I die, you can still see my face and hear my voice and speak to me in your heart.

For as long as you remember me, I am never entirely lost. When I’m feeling most ghost-like, it is your remembering me that helps remind me that I actually exist. When I’m feeling sad, it’s my consolation. When I’m feeling happy, it’s part of why I feel that way.
If you forget me, one of the ways I remember who I am will be gone. If you forget, part of who I am will be gone.”

~Frederick Buechner
(Book: Whistling in the Dark https://amzn.to/3OPAhdu)

This is why I write.  Words.  As long as there are words, no one need ever die.  These words are my immortality.  Without words, I would drift into obscurity and my life would disappear into nothingness.  I can’t bear the thought of that.  We must remember each other.

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The ultimate touchstone is witness.

This photo above of my Book Club was taken in our home last year.  This group of friends has been together 36 years, since organizing into a book club in 1987, the year I came home from Nigeria.   Some of us had worked together at the MTC in Provo, some were college friends, some were friends of friends.  The miracle is that we came together and we stayed together and we continue on, together.

I have often thought how interesting it is that some of my dearest friends are in this group.  Or in my long-time quilting groups, or in my neighborhood.  My question is, “Are we dear because we’ve known each other for so long?” or “Are we dear because our paths were meant to cross and they did?”

My friends and I been through thick and thin together–is that what’s made us close?  Or, did some Divine Hand gather us all into like places and let us learn to love each other?

I sometimes think that if I were to have 30 years, or 40 or 50 years with anyone, I would learn to love them and we might be close friends.  We would SEE each other and be SEEN by each other.  I think about Eternity and having all the time in the world (out of the world) to learn to love others.  I have no doubt that will live in a society of Love.

I happened across this thought this week and have been thinking a lot about these words:

No matter the medicinal virtues of being a true friend or sustaining a long close relationship with another, the ultimate touchstone of friendship is not improvement, neither of the other nor of the self, the ultimate touchstone is witness, the privilege of having been seen by someone and the equal privilege of being granted the sight of the essence of another, to have walked with them and to have believed in them, and sometimes just to have accompanied them for however brief a span, on a journey impossible to accomplish alone.

~David Whyte, from the Book: Consolations – Revised edition: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words

These words describe beautifully that witness–of having been seen by someone, and being granted the sight of the essence of another.  I want to be better at this–better at seeing the essence of others.

I am so grateful for my friends.  I miss having them near.  I appreciate those who really see me, and love me still.

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Old Fallen Leaves

Even the old leaves are beautiful.  Kind of like people.

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