Family Snippets

As parents we used in our day to day vocabulary two Portuguese words more often than any others, recently I have been thinking why? In spite of being two very distinct words, they seemed to serve always an identical purpose or objective, at least for us they conveyed similar meaning as we raised our children. Cuidado - A word to warn us that ahead are obstacles or challenges that can be prevented if precautions are taken along the way, a form of showing concern and care, of calling our attention for something important, of being thoughtful and aware of how precious life is . Calma - A word that invites to slow a little to avoid problems that can be encountered if we rush too fast into things, a sister word of tranquility and peace. At first it might seem these words imparted a sense of fear or lack of confidence in what lays ahead, but as I look in retrospective as a parent, they meant exactly the opposite, we used them because we really saw the opportunities o...

Jane with Madeira Island Boots Look at the picture... we are all different aren't we? Some have big feet, others small or very small, but we all have feet!  Same of us might be at a stage where we are just walking the early steeps of life, or the early steps of marriage or  the early steeps of a career and at times it might seem that the walk is going to be a very, very long one, for some of us the journey now is in an advance phase, but for all of us one thing is certain, the journey can be going in same direction to reach the same destination. When I look at my granddaughter I am reminded that we are all children of Heavenly Father. That knowledge and conviction gives me strength.  The Plan of Happiness is for all of us, learning more about that plan it will give you and me a greater sense of purpose and  a stronger desire to live this precious life more abundantly. "Regardless of what you do or don’t have in this life, your deepes...

Which direction will you face when you encounter life's cross roads? is it fame? money? personal gratification?, none of these are bad things, but they will be different to you and others that live with you when we look at roads that include... charity! selfishness! service! productiveness! compassion, patience! I know, it is not always the case that we get on a road where you can find all these things all at once, that would even seem unreal, there will always be struggles and challenges, that are part of life, which will cause us to stop and think where should we go? what is more important? Sometimes we see people taking roads that lead to emptiness, passiveness, idleness, apathy and even negligence, all of these roads do not bring true happiness, we might be deceived at first with the idea of a road with a shorter distance, an easier road to ride, or even a prettier road, only to find out in the end disappointment that we could not see at the beginning of the journe...

Just prior to my departure to serve a full-time mission  for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints I wrote in 1979 a personal statement that would be the basis for the direction I took in life during these last 35 years. I did it with the hope it would guide me in critical decisions.  As a convert to the Church, I acquired a profound desire to be a better person in this world, a more committed Christian and to walk the path of mortality with purpose, this was the motivation to write these lines that would provide me inspiration, reference, and courage to live a better life!   When I met Filomena, my sweetheart, I felt impressed to share it with her prior to our marriage, these simple words took us to very meaningful conversations and discussions about what both of us would want for our future family and what values and principles would guide and help us raise our children, with her input we updated this statement to become "ours" to guide us i...