Ep. 23 Acting on Inspiration with Trisha MacQueen

This is Lacey Jones with Elevate the Individual. Episode 23 Acting on Inspiration with Trisha MacQueen. Welcome back to the second week in our conversation with the one and only Trisha MacQueen. If you haven't already listened to the first episode of this conversation, I want you to go back to episode 22 last week as Trisha talked a little bit about the personal work that she's been doing. And then we're going to jump in now to the effect of that work and how it's impacted her relationship with her mother. So, without further ado, here's our conversation. We've talked, you and I, a lot about the personal work that needs to be done to show up in times of stress or unfamiliarity and just high demand. High demand. And that's your relationship with your mom. So you've done this work individually. How has it impacted your mom?

My mom is so much calmer than she has been in a long time. And her relationship, it's actually pretty special. She and I have gotten very close and I cherish that because she is functioning at 20% of her heart capacity. Everyone is like, we don't know how or why she's still she has stomach pain and they think it's actually heart pain and that she's just saying because even she doesn't want to admit. So we don't know. I mean, every day is a gift that she's still alive. But the blessing of all this is that I get to say I will not have regrets when she passes and I get to see her the peace that she feels. And I've had some really neat experiences and been inspired to do a few things in regards to my mom that have made a big difference. Yes. Okay. So one of them is I don't even think I told you about this, but one of them is that after we signed the papers and she went on hospice and we told all the family my nephew lives in, idaho Falls. And he just said, I want to come down with my kids, and I want them to see my grandma and spend time with her while she still remembers them and while she's still able to be aware of them. And I want them to do that. So they came down and I went with them down there and we took pictures and stuff. And the sweet thing is there's been many times where I felt inspired to do things and one of them was just to print these pictures out and frame them and give them to her of these great grandchildren. And she cherishes them and has them up in her room and just like these little it's such a simple little thing. It probably seems silly, but to see her light up. We have a family group text. A lot of families have that. But ours is much more active since grandma has gotten sick. And it's been really neat to see how people have grown together. And it's really through Grandma. Good things come from this, and that's a blessing and really neat to see the way they serve each other, I'm telling you. And you have to find the light moments. There's been some fun moments in this, too, but there's been moments where I've been sitting with her. Like, one time we knew she wasn't well, and it was right before we signed the final hospice papers. And I was at the hospital with her, and she'd been sick off and on. And I made mention and told all the nieces and nephews, or my nieces and nephews, all her grandkids, hey, Grandma's not doing good. She's been lonely, so people should text her. And I was going through my mom's phone while she was getting some test run, and I was like, okay, that's it. And so I sent a text out to everyone, and I'm like, Grandma has two texts. And I'm like, everyone needs to step their game up.

We need to step up here.

And it was really cute because everybody did. Everybody did. And it's been really neat to see the different ways. And I'll share some really beautiful things. Like, I know for sure you don't know these things. Okay, so you're going to love this. Okay, so I have a niece, Megan, and this is by the way, this ties back into how God is aware of us and our needs. So I'm in the Stake Relief Study Presidency, and we were doing our in service and we did it training. Yeah, there you go. Training for all the wards. So for people who aren't of members of the Church of Jesus Christ or Latter day Saints, our congregations are divided into geographical areas, and each one is called a ward. Nine, usually sometimes ten wards encompass a stake. And then I'm part of the stake leadership for the women, which is, I think, hilarious that I would be in charge of training anyone.

Oh, come on. You're one of the best trainers ever. I love this.

Okay. And this is you'll appreciate this is that. We were training on how to through COVID. Everybody's world was rocked and we all lost connection with each other. Everyone felt alone, everyone felt isolated. Even with our best attempts, it was hard. So one of the things we do is we really minister to each other. But ministering has become more and more difficult than ever. It's always been a struggle to minister to each other over the last 50 years, but through COVID, it's become even more difficult. So we were training on how to minister using the five Love language. Okay, right? Really cool. Somehow I must have missed the meeting where the Love languages were assigned, and all of a sudden, I'm assigned to Touch, how to minister using the Love language of Touch. Okay. Awkward. So meanwhile, still working a ton, by the way, through all this, I'm in sales. That's where Lacey and I developed our relationship and friendship through mutual. We worked for the same company together. I'm at this point gunning for my best sales month ever through all this. This is crazy.

Gunning is probably, like, a nice way of talking about your drive and as you strive for goals. Gunning would be a light version of that. Trisha is one of my favorites. Okay, continue.

So I'm having my record breaking month to sell more than I've ever sold. And I'm dealing with mom and just a lot of personal family stuff going on, too. And then I'm going to teach on this ministering love language of touch. And I was like, okay. So I'm trying to think about what I can do besides handshake and maybe the occasional hug. What's the appropriate way to minister with touch? My favorite scripture has always been the woman with an issue of blood that touched the hymn, and that faith. And so I was like, well, there's touch anyway. And so I was like, okay. But then as literally because Heavenly Father likes to wait till the very last moment. So as I'm teaching, and I only had to teach for three minutes, it dawns on me, my beautiful and the most tender hearted, good hearted niece, I can't put enough kind words to assign to Megan gentle, gentle soul. Beautiful soul. Megan goes to my mom's and paints her nails. Oh, my mom took great pride her whole life in keeping her nails painted. And Megan paints my mom's nails. And if that is not the beautifulest example of touch administering and showing love, I just couldn't think of it. So first my niece just loves her grandmother in this beautiful way, and then Heavenly Father brings it to my heart. So I can share this because he knows, well, Trisha really needs some help here, so I'm going to she's blown.

Up there, so let's give her a little bit of.

I've had we've seen the most beautiful examples with my mom, and that's what I mean. People have stepped up and just the most beautiful examples. So Megan drives from Orange County, California, to Escondido, which is like San Diego County. So it's like an hour, and I'm not sure exactly. I think it's once every couple of weeks. It might be every three weeks or so. She does her little gel manicures, which Grandma loves paint. Grandma's mean. Grandma cherishes it. And it's not just the painting of the nails, of course. It's the time with Grandma. Okay, precious.

So one of the things that has really been tender in all of this for me is that when my grandma and her final years, it was really the final year of her life. We had always been close, and my grandma lived just a couple of blocks from me. By the time they moved over to where we were living and my cousins were living, in their later years, they moved to be closer to the Grandkids and so as life went on, we could help care for them as needed. And so as you've shared your stories of your mom and the experiences with me, it has really brought me back to those moments. And my grandma passed away shortly after my senior year of high school, and I joke that I was her favorite granddaughter. There's some seriousness to that on my end, right? Like I just really had the special bond with my grandma, and you and I have talked about different moments of caring for your mom, and it reminds me of caring for my grandma and the special connection that even though grandma may not have been there, as much as she wanted to be, mentally, there was really ways to connect. And so for you to talk about painting of the nails, that was something I used to do for my grandma. She had macular degeneration in her final years, and so it was hard for her to see, but she loved having her nails done, and that was a special way that we bonded, was painting her nails. And so I'm just over here. I'm like, okay, here's another experience and connection that you and I have both seen, how it can bring the generations.

Together, and it's tender and not a huge thing, but it's a beautiful gift, and you'll cherish that forever. Forever. It's that time. It is. So so. And then I have another niece. Who alyssa. These two, Alyssa and Megan, just I have to be honest.

Are they your favorite? Should I say that?

Are they your I mean, yes, but no, because I'm sarcastic, and they are not. So they have no two what I was going to say is these two have no guile, and that we come from a family of a lot of sarcasm. So Alyssa's mom, thankfully, has no sarcasm. Heather is a gentle, kind woman. Honestly, I have no idea where Megan came from, because both her mom and dad highly sarcastic, and, I mean, she just came to earth gentle and kind. So anyway, but Megan and Alyssa both are just very gentle. And actually, grandma is not eating well. And in fact, since she went on hospice 90 days ago, she's lost 30 pounds. Okay, so she's not eating well. Anyway, it's a whole long story, but a lot of it, nothing tastes good. Alyssa started sending her a smoothie. She sends her a smoothie from DoorDash, and grandma loves a smoothie, and she drinks a smoothie. Alyssa sends her a smoothie every single day, and then she will, like, say, grandma, I sent you a pumpkin smoothie. I thought that sounded good. Grandma, I sent you a blah, blah blah smoothie. Grandma, I sent you a smoothie bowl. I thought it would be fun to try something. She sends Grandma a smoothie every single day, and her hospice nurses say it is the smartest thing we've ever seen, because she eats it, and she was having discomfort because she wasn't eating. And all the pain medication she's taking that smoothie sustains her through the day because she drinks it through the day.

What a beautiful connection.

Yes, it's amazing. We just see all these amazing, beautiful and there's so many, all the grandkids and niece now, these are the ones that live close and can do it. Many are out of state and can't.

There's different ways wherever we are, and I think we learned that through COVID, is that you don't have to be in someone's face to connect. There are different ways to connect, right?

Yes, absolutely. And the pictures and that she loves all of them. It's fantastic. One of the things that's been really amazing through this is and actually back to that day in the temple with the rapid fire secession, is that I had been going to see my mom every week because she had just progressed. And that was one of the reasons I wasn't going to the temple every week, is because I was going to my mom's every week. I had felt like I needed to be there every week. She just had progressed so quickly in a bad way that I felt like I needed to go every single week to see her. Yeah. And I was frankly wearing myself out.

You couldn't sustain it. It's not terrible.

Besides physically, emotionally, it just wasn't good. And so in the temple, one of the beautiful things is that I had a very clear, no questions asked, I will tell you when you need to go be with your mom. I will make it very clear that when you need to be there with your mom, you do not need to be there every week. And so I really lean on that. And when I feel a nudge to go, I go. And if it's the middle of the week, middle of the day, whatever, I go. I never, ever ignore a call from my mom. So that was a beautiful thing to feel that inspiration know, I'll know when the right times to go. So I started going every other weekend instead. And one time I went and Morgan went with me and Morgan's my daughter. And there's been times where my husband has gone with me. There's been many times I've gone by myself. But to be honest, it was taking such an emotional toll on me on the way home. I would just cry my way home that both Charlie and Morgan felt like, well, we don't really want you to go on your own because it's just so sad. So we're going to go with you. My husband is fantastic. I'm married to one of those salt of the earth men, but also not nearly as gentle and sweet with Grandma as Morgan. But he's great with technology.

Imagine that, right? Imagine that.

Shocking. Yeah. So Morgan starts going with me, and Grandma really connects with Morgan. So Morgan is my 21 year old daughter, and she graduated from high school, went up to school in Utah. COVID happened. She moved home, moved back up, locked down again back home. And just like so many people, COVID just really rocked our worlds. And what she realized that is she does better with a tribe. And it was kind of a cool thing because she's know it's okay to do better at home with a tribe. So Morgan moved home with two cats. I had no idea. I love these little kitties so much, but I do. They're adorable. So she has come with me, and I mentioned she is that gentle soul, like Megan and Alyssa, which is funny, too, because Grandma confuses Megan and Morgan, which in our family group chat, we have a joke that Megan Morgan interchangeable, same person, that there's no difference. And then grandma's minds are the same. So we have this big joke, like it's just one person in grandma's know you have to laugh about these things. So Morgan started going with me. One of the things I noticed, through no fault of any of the caregivers that my mom has, we noticed that her linens were getting a little dingy. Part of that is because she lays in bed all day long, and she wasn't letting them change them. She lives in assisted living facility. She was just being very stubborn, and it's really hard. There's a fine line. Like, she still bathes herself, she still feeds herself, but she just anyway, when she's holding on to the things that she could still control, like, I noticed her linens were a little dingy. And what I realized is the best thing I could do is just completely swap out her bedding every other week or every week, depending on the need. So we started doing I just when I go in, I just have a whole new bed set up.

It's so smart, really.

She loves it, but she says, Morgan, I love the way you make my bed. You tuck it in better than anyone else. So I want you to make my bed. Okay, no problem. So Morgan goes with me, and she's making the bed. And while I'm talking to my so through this, morgan has started to be the one that consistently goes with me on Saturdays because she can make the bed. And Grandma just loves her, and she just talks to my mom and really funny. This last visit was so good. It was so good. But a few things happened that were really funny, and one of which was she's making the bed. And all of a sudden, my mom goes and my nickname is Cricket. My mom calls me cricket. She says, Cricket, I need more kleenex. And I look around, I'm like, Mom, I just bought you four boxes of Kleenex like last week. Mom, that's a lot of Kleenex. And she goes, well, there's only 65 sheets in each box. And I go, well, mom, that's like 300 sheets. That's a lot of kleenex. And she goes, well, they're all gone, because I see she's got a roll of toilet paper that she's using blow her nose with. And I'm like, okay, well, I'll just send you more. No problem. We'll get you more. And I'm like, okay, whatever. And then Morgan's tucking her bed in because one side of it's up against the wall, and she's doing her bed while we're doing this. And Morgan goes, mom, come here. And I walk over, and before I'm even there, my mom goes, I didn't put those there.

She knew exactly what you were going to find. Just like a teenager, right?

Just like a teenager. On the side of the bed was mounds of not used, perfectly new. Like, I don't know if she had piled them up and then slipped to the side or whatever. And so the Morgan goes, do I get a broom and clean them all out? And I said, well, no, because eventually they'll pile up high enough that she can just reach and grab them.

It's like a toddler who plays with the wet wipe know?

I don't know, maybe. But whatever. It was really funny. And then she was showing Morgan some pictures when she was younger, and my mom dyed her hair red for years. And she goes, I used to have red hair. And Morgan goes, yeah, it's really pretty. And she goes, oh, I stopped dyeing my hair when I moved here because it was too hard to dye it. And Morgan goes, well, do you want me to help you dye your hair, Grandma? My mom's hair is white and has been for like 13 years. Do you want me to help you dye your hair, Grandma?

Oh, well.

And she goes, Grandma, I will get you back to this red if that's what you want. We will do it today.

Love morgan's heart. I love it.

I had these visions of my brother walking and seeing my mom. It was really funny. I was like, oh, that would be so good. Anyway, so it's just a really good moment. But probably the sweetest thing about this last visit with my mom is that I'd been feeling a little for Lauren about visiting her. She's been really depressed, and who wouldn't? She I think she knows her time is really at hand. Her hospice nurse shared that recently. She was there when my mom walked to the bathroom, and it's just like, maybe five steps with a walker and that. She said when she came back, she goes, your mom was not okay. She said, she's clearly having major heart problems, but she's just really hiding it because she just doesn't want people to know how bad it is.

And she said, I really believe that her heart is very much taxing her. So my mom is very particular about her. She lives in, like, a studio apartment, and she's very particular about it. And she doesn't like a lot of clutter and she likes it to be decorated. Just so. She often has said, I don't want a bunch of Christmas decorations. I don't want a tree. She wants a wreath. She wants my brother to send her a wreath from I don't know where he sends it from, but I want the fresh wreath that smells good. I want that wreath every year. And she has a little snow globe she puts out and just a couple of little things that's it very particular.

Well, so I was going to go down and I said, mom, what about if I bring you just a little Christmas tree? She has these little chairs in her room. And I don't know if anyone will know what this is or if you'll even know, but maybe you will. Do you remember those little ice cream parlor tables and little ice cream parlor chairs that were like wrought iron and they're like white? Yeah, you know what I'm talking about. Okay. So she has a couple of little ice cream parlor chairs that are the little ones, like just kind of cute. So she goes, well, maybe I could do like a little tree just on top of them. And so I thought I'll go to Trader Joe's and get her a live one.

It will smell good. You know, they have a little pre decorated thought I'll get her one of those and put it on there. And so I woke up early Saturday morning, as is my habit, and I was reading my scriptures and just really not having great success at reading my scriptures. A lot of just mind watering wandering, just sitting there thinking, wandering, thinking about my mom. And then the thought came to me that and when I say the thought came to me like oh, it wasn't like 15 minutes I was sitting there. 3 hours. Okay, 3 hours I was sitting there. This is not a short event. By 430 in the morning, I mean, I'm very much an early riser.

At 430 in the morning, I'm sitting there. We were going to leave for Grandma's house at 09:00. A.m be there by ten. So at 730, all of a sudden, it hits me you should bring her a small Christmas tree. Also, ironically not ironically, I had ordered myself a small little three foot tree to put in my little entry. Alcove never have done that before. Imagine that on a year that I don't even feel like decorating for Christmas, I happen to have bought another Christmas tree.

So I had this little three foot tree. And the thought came to me that I should gather ornaments for that tree. That she had made my mom's very creative. And all of our lives she made us ornaments. Every year. Her mom traveled the world in her retirement and would bring home ornaments to us. And then, for whatever reason, several years ago, my mom gave me a handful of ornaments that had been on her tree as a child.

So I had this thought that I should bring these ornaments and decorate the tree with these ornaments that had this sentimental value. And so I woke Morgan up. She does not wake up at 430 shopper. And so she instantly got so excited. And then we had the thought, let's go through the house and find anything that she made or had sentimental value and let's bring it and decorate her room with all these things that were reminiscent of her life. Yes. Or enough that it would remind her. Right.

Spark a little memory. Right?

Right. So we bring this box, and I put the little tree up and I string the twinkle lights because I wasn't smart enough to have bought a prelit tree. That's fine. So I string the little lights, and then we start pulling out ornaments. And as we pull out an ornament and we walk over and show my mom, we walk two steps and show my mom. She would go I remember that from when I was a little girl that was on my tree. And then we'd hang it on the tree, and then I shore one and she goes, oh, I made you a matching dress. That little Swiss dot that little Dutch girl. You had a matching Swiss dot dress. And I'd hang it on the tree. And then she remembered, oh, my mom brought that one back from Argentina, and she would remember these ornaments, and she just lit up. A nurse came in to give her some pills, and she said, I was feeling a little down, but look how happy look at this tree. Look at I made that one. And I made this one. My mom had made this Advent calendar. That is a Christmas tree that she stitched. And it had you remember, like, the put a little thing every day. A lot of people had the chocolate or whatever. Of course, my mom was phenomenal. So we had I mean, it's like, three by.

It's a cross stitch, right?

Big. No, it's not cross stitch. My sister has one that's cross stitch that my mom made. No, mine is from when I was a child. This is the one we had, okay? It is like three x six, maybe four x six. It is big. It's a wall hanging. And it's a Christmas tree with little elves on ladders decorating. It little woodland animals. And it has the ornaments, and you hang ornaments on velcro. Each day you put a different ornament up, and she's hand stitched every ornament. So there's French horns and there's little hearts and there's, like, a lamb, and there's a baby Jesus, and there's all these little ornaments, and at the bottom is a little pocket that holds them all. And she gave it to me because it was missing a few ornaments. And she said, I know you'll be able to replace this is in your.

Wheelhouse to make these little cute things? Yes. Okay.

And have I? No. But do now. I will. Yes. You better believe now. Yes. And to be fair, I had rolled this thing up and tucked it away and not used it for several years, and I will never again not display it after this year because it is so tender to is. My mom made this with her hands. With her hands. It's so precious to me. She just lit up that I brought that, and when Morgan put it up on the wall oh. And she tells everyone, I made that. I made that. And my mom goes, you better put all the ornaments up. I don't think I'll be able to climb on my bed and put those up. No, probably not.

Probably not. Mom. Yeah, we'll go ahead and take care of that for you.

There's little wooden Santas that I had painted for her years and years ago that she'd given back to me, because she goes, I don't really have room for them anymore. But they're, like, from different each Santa represents, like, this one's a German Santa, this one's a Russian Santa, this one's it and they all are dressed different, so I made those from her, and then I bought her a little nativity, just all different things that were reminiscent, and we got them all. She was just so excited and just cherished it, and she just lit up in a way I haven't seen in so long. And she called me three or four times to say I was so sad, and I just feel so much happier. This just made me so much happier. And the tender mercies. Instantly I remembered being in the temple and the thought coming to me, I will tell you when you need to see your mom. I will touch your heart and tell you what you need to do. And I remembered that. And this is why I stay close in my scriptures, because that's where I hear him. Now, maybe I wasn't, like, reading my scriptures a few Saturdays ago as intently as I would have been, but I think just sitting there, opening my scriptures, even saying a prayer, reading a verse, opens it up to the communication created that space so I can receive. Yeah. And that's where I hear the message, go do this for your mom. This is also a beautiful thing that I'm watching my mom and my daughter bond. It is this absolutely beautiful gift. And, you know, these drives down there, it's an hour to escondido every time and an hour back. And my daughter and I are bonding. We have this precious time together that forever we will have this time together that this is the time that we took care of Grandma. We've gone down there and cleaned her apartment before, and they clean it, but Grandma's, they don't clean it the way Grandma cleans. We've gone down and cleaned it. We've. Done lots of different things. In fact, Morgan recently noticed that grandma wears the same nightgown. So Morgan went on Amazon and found old fashioned nightgowns, the silky little ones that she grandma wears and found several ones, and she found one that's Christmassy. And we're bonding and having these moments together that are just so precious and special that I'll have forever this time with my daughter, caring for my mom. It is just a precious moment that we have together. I never knew I would cherish this time. To me, when it all started, I looked at it would just be awful and bad. I would not see any good come of it. Instead, I see beautiful, tender things. I see God's hand every single day in my life. Right now, every single day I see God's hand in my life. It doesn't mean it's not hard, but I definitely see what's more important right now. And I'm reminded often of what's the more important part and to pick the better part, it's pretty amazing. It's a beautiful gift, and I'll cherish it forever. I mean, forever. I'll have this with me.

Amen. Because as an outsider, watching this happen over the course of the last couple of years and the evolution that you've gone through of really this kind of contentious, like, really, it comes from heartbreak, right? As you watch your mom all of a sudden have to go through this transition in her final years. And it's not easy, right? It's not easy to see your mom take that path and watching this beautiful transition as you minister to your mom, right? And as you minister to your mom and draw closer to Christ, you're able to hear him in a way that blesses you. It blesses your mom, and it blesses Morgan. I was Morgan in the equation when my grandma was passing. It was months. It was a process to basically close down this life and move on to her next one. And in that transition, there were so many painful yet beautiful moments. And I remember the nightgowns right there's so many things that you've mentioned. There's been parallels in my experience. And I can very vividly remember a night when I spent trying to calm my grandma as she was in her home. She thought she was back in her garden she had in Central Washington, but the bees were just driving her crazy that night in her garden around her raspberries. And I remember trying to work with her to find what would comfort her in that moment. She didn't know that she was standing or sitting and trying to find a way to bring comfort. But that is a time that I will cherish. I have the memories. I have the connections. And so when I was thinking about you and the words that came to mind, connections and relationships and Christlike love, you see it unfold in this process of loving and caring for your mom. And you've brought together your daughter, you brought together your husband, your nieces, your nephews, your siblings. You've brought them together so that this is a family event. It's beautiful.

This Christmas will be one we remember forever because it's the Christmas we served Grandma.

Yeah.

And it will be special. And it has brought the whole family together. It really has in a way that so often families, you hear about the tension, the fights, the contentions, the anger. Through all this, everything dropped. Of course, every family has some angst.

Yeah.

It's like everything just dropped because we take care of Grandma. I think we've learned what's the better part? What's the most important. I can't see us ever going back, to be honest with you. Maybe we will. But I can't see us ever going back to worrying about things like this. It just not as important.

Well, it's this lens that you now see things right. And sometimes you come up close and sometimes you have to step back and you have to get a different perspective on it. And while it's been a challenge for you personally to balance every area of your life, which is motherhood, I would say you've been able to draw the boundaries, draw the lines, and saying, hey, right now, yeah, I'm focused here. But no, actually, this is the time where I need to focus here. And when you shared that inspiration that you received, where you felt as though Heavenly Father would say, I'll tell you, I'll tell you when you need to be there, I could hear relief. Sometimes we overwhelm ourselves with these thoughts of, I'm going to miss something. I won't be there. And to hear the relief, you hit.

The nail on the head. Because I was feeling like, I'm not doing it right. I'm not doing it right. I don't know how to do this for my mom. And there were many years where we thought my husband is really quite loyal. We had planned on having my mom move in with us at this point in her life. After consulting with doctors and hospice, we realized that's actually not a good thing. We always knew it would be challenging for our marriage, but we really do both feel quite strongly like we have a duty to care for our family, so we would always care for any of our family that needed it. But the doctors pointed out something that this was really neat, is that when someone is going through dementia and Alzheimer's, moving them out of their home can be very traumatic. And then now that she has such a good hospice care, we feel like this is better. So then she's still an hour away and I was feeling worn out. How do I get down there enough? And I do work a lot of hours, and it is our busy season. I'm like, I get up at 315. I go to the gym and work out for my sanity. I have learned I've got to work out. And you don't even know this now, so this is fantastic. So I go to the gym and work out, then I come home and if I'm smart and clever enough, I have time to read my scriptures before I start work. If I don't, then I have to read it after work, which is fine, but I like to do it before.

Yeah.

So then I get my scriptures read and then I start work at 10:00. Now, every day my friend drives over that I go to the gym with in the morning because we're 50 and lifting weights is a little hard on your body, so walking stretches it out and helps you to feel better. So she comes over at ten every day and my daughter joins us. And at 10:00 a.m. We go for a walk every day, the three of us. So now every day we go for a walk. So I've added that in. So we go for a quick little jaunt around the block for 30 minutes and then back to work. And then after work, then it's the normal chores, maybe household duties, cook dinner, whatever other responsibilities I have. So on the weekend comes, it's the normal things, it's the groceries, it's the laundry, it's the whatever whenever you go to Grandma's. Besides, it's the 5 hours, it's the hour, there 3 hours, hour back. It's an emotional toll. I come back and I'm exhausted. So I was like, how do I do this every week? So when I received that inspiration, it was such a weight lifted off my shoulders because I didn't have to try to hold that burden anymore. I could just trust. And I knew, because I've seen it enough in my life that I knew I could trust Him. I knew I could trust God, that he really would show me, he really would tell me when I needed to. And the fact that just a couple of weeks later it was bring the Christmas tree, bring the ornaments, bring these, I know he'll make sure, I know there's no question, I'll know when I need to be there.

Which just it releases that weight and the thought process of am I doing enough? I'm not doing enough. I'm going to miss something. This is not going to work. I need to be doing more. If you remove that from your life, it then frees up your brain juice and power and energy to focus on the other tasks at hand. And you mentioned trusting God to communicate with you in your time of need to tell you go now. You have done such beautiful work to get yourself to the place where you've built a relationship with Christ and with our Heavenly Father. So that when he needs to communicate with you, you have this trust in Him. And you know that he will provide for you, he will take care of you, but not just you. He's going to take care of your mom, and he's going to take care of your daughter. One of the most beautiful things I loved in watching this is the generational connection between I mentioned that before to you, that you're a daughter to your mom, but you're a mother to your daughter, and you're kind of in this middle tying the two generations together and I mean sold like, you had me there, right? How beautiful is that work? And I think that is the work that we're here to do, is to tie the generations together.

I have learned that more so through this experience than ever before. And watching the different nieces and nephews, watching the different ways, I mentioned a couple of standouts, but there's been so many, I could say so many beautiful experiences from different nieces and nephews and the different things they do. One, my brother had to go on a business trip to Paris, and my niece made sure that he brought her back a Louis Vuitton scarf. She has that tied on her walker. She still has the box. I mean, this niece was like, dad, we have to bring Grandma this. I mean, she has to have this scarf. There's just so many sweet little things. But I was going to say, this thought came to me when you were speaking, and all this is true. Like the way it's tied my mom and my daughter and me together, the three of us, and then the individuals and the relationships, the way truly that Heavenly Father inspires me and touches my heart, the way he absolutely speaks to me. The greatest thing is that everybody can have that same experience. We are all entitled to that. It's available for every single one of us. You just have to open up your heart to receive it. Yes. You have to look for your opportunity to hear him and find out how do you hear him? This is how I hear him. But how do you hear him? Because I promise you, he is waiting to talk to you. He has something to tell you. And your life will change when you listen to him.

Amen. And it doesn't have to be that you as we mentioned before, is it in the temple, in your place of worship, or is it on your magic carpet?

Yes, exactly. Doesn't have to be somewhere big. There's times in my life where I heard him when I was riding my bike. That's the only time that I had little kids, and it's the only time they were in a little trailer behind me. And it was the only time it was quiet enough that I could hear him. We all hear him in different ways, but just a good reminder that he is just waiting to talk to you. So just find your place and listen.

May you each find new ways to hear him and act on the inspiration. We'll see you next week.