I remember when I first started working with a group of 3-year-olds in a church class, I was completely at a loss as to how to deal with some of the children. They weren’t like my own 3-year-old! Some were rambunctious. Some seemed to have an aversion to actually sitting on their chairs. Some felt…
One of our newest members of the Big Ocean Women communications team is a wonderfully insightful author, Emily Layton. She grew up in Tempe, Arizona and is “the middle of five children.” She shared the following experience from her childhood: “Every summer growing up we went for a week or two to a cabin in…
Signatures and fingerprints are unique. It’s hard to wrap your brain around it, but it’s true. We have seen bad guys in the movies take pains to NOT leave their fingerprints at the scene of a crime, and other criminals have tried with varying degrees of success to imitate the signature of an unsuspecting victim.…
Women are amazing. At least I have never come to know one who isn’t worthy of numerous superlative adjectives. Of course I don’t know everyone, and my circle isn’t a particularly large one these days. Nevertheless, I think I have met enough women of various backgrounds to justify my claim. The thing I find interesting…
When my older brother returned from the war in Vietnam, he was treated cruelly by some people, just like other returning veterans of that particular war were treated. It was a dark time in our history, with many people essentially taking out their frustrations about the war on the returning soldiers, most of whom didn’t…
Big Ocean Women and friends for the cause donated resources to assist another family who recently arrived in Utah from Afghanistan! The Emami family with 11 members exited Afghanistan on August 23, 2021, from the Kabul airport amidst chaos and confusion, and were flown to Qatar in the first leg of their journey. Weeks later as…
This month is such a great time of the year. February is a nice little in-between-seasons time, the space between winter and spring. It’s a great time to do a little personal inventory! It is a great time to show respect to ourselves and others in our relationships, both personal and professional. We can use…
Once, on a writer’s retreat to a desert in south-central Utah, I was caught in an unexpected downpour while standing on a red rock ridge high above a green grass valley where a river meandered through the late fall day, slow with sediment, the drowsy water a small relief from the drought and dust that…
“I speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is the garbage man or the president of the university.” Albert Einstein In this quote, Einstein captures our tenet for the month, “We are each unique and innately worthy of respect.” From garbage man to university president, child to adult, neighbor tostranger, respect is shown…
January, the month named for the Roman god of beginnings, transitions, passages, and endings has us traditionally looking back in reflection and forward in hope. When we look back we can see the incredible obstacles that have been overcome, the relationships we have built, the good we have done, and also identify where we have…
I don’t like to wait. Like a stubborn toddler, I want what I want NOW! This applies to waiting in line at the store, for a delayed flight to be rescheduled, or the doctor to finally appear to discuss my medical situation. Over time I have had to agree with the adage that the best…
The woman was older, but in a way that spoke more of experience and enthusiasm and vibrant life than of age, really, her gray hair swept back from her face and held in place with ornate combs. They were interesting things, those combs, bright and colorful against the sober shades of her hair, as bright…
The Houston cottage understands and promotes individual worth, especially the worth of girls and women. This past year the cottage, led by Nikki Brown, has served in very sweet and personal ways. Families transitioning out of homelessness have many challenges. Working with a local non-profit organization, the Houston cottage members prepared and delivered meals for…
One of the realities for me of being a writing teacher is that I spend my life reading: reading books, reading craft theory, reading student drafts, reading the work of my writing group. I find myself frequently in a place to discuss with others their ideas and their opinions and their storytelling—whether they are writing…
We begin the new year with this powerful tenet: “We believe in God and are women of faith.” This is a common theme about which we speak and write. But it is more than words and ideas. It is most powerful when modeled by the examples of women who live it. We invited such women…
I met Dr. Ugochi Ohajuruka the first time I went to the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women in 2017. As I filmed her, I was so taken by her desire to lift women out of poverty and give girls the correct maturation knowledge and tools to build a good foundation for the future.…
