Michael's Gratitude Project

Part of the reasoning behind this project is that it is requiring me to think about important turning points in my life, recognize vital influences at that time and try to understand how that influence has impacted me.  It is a way to understand how grateful I should be as much as an opportunity to express how grateful that I am.  Some of the people on my ‘list of folks to write about’ are people who have impacted me, but I am not yet sure how.  I need to evaluate their influence and then hopefully come to a deeper understanding of their impact on me. On the other hand there are people on my list like Mike Leavitt who inspired the gratitude project and whose influence I have evaluated over and over in my mind through the years.  I could detail at length the direct impact that has come from my interactions with Mike Leavitt and his influence upon me.  The challenge here is to try and keep that line of thought to only a few pages. My first significant in...

I think that this post would surprise people who knew me in high school and who knew Jeanne McGuire.  Jeanne was the high school choral director at Viewmont High School.  She was a no nonsense director that expected the best from her students and who often scared them into better performance.  There were a lot of choir students that could not stand her, many dropped out or never took choir because of what they heard about her.  But more often, her students had enormous respect for her.  She knew her music, she knew how to bring out the best from most of the students and they were better performers and singers from having her classes. What may seem strange about this post to people who knew me in high school is that I never took choir.  I was not one of the hundreds of students that took 10 th grade choir and I was certainly not qualified to try out for the performance choirs.  I had many, many close friends who were in these choirs and who loved...

I think some people are expected to shape lives in important ways.  Teachers, church leaders, managers, family members and even community leaders are in positions to shape lives and we often expect that from them.  Sometimes, however, there are people that you would not expect to have a major impact but who shape a life without knowing it.  Craig Christensen is one of those people for me.  One simple act nearly 20 years ago has had a huge impact on my life and I’ll bet that he does not even remember it happening. Craig was one of the kids in my neighborhood growing up.  I met him when I was about nine and we were friends until my family moved away when I was fifteen.  During this time we were your average neighborhood buddies.  We played sports together, jumped on trampolines, I jumped off of his roof a few times, we went on camping trips with the scouts and hung out at the Jr. High.  I remember going to his house to play Mortal Kombat on the...

Thinking about Candace Daly for my last post made me think of some of the other people who helped me in tremendous ways and who were parents of my friends.  Some of them where always, and probably always will be my friends parent. I mean that I really only had a connection to them because of their children.  However some of the people that I am grateful for started out as my friend’s parents but eventually became good friends directly.  They are people who became close friends in their own right despite the strength of the relationship that I had with their children. One of these people, who I consider a friend first and the parent of a friend second, is Rick martin.  Rick is Justin Martin’s dad.  Justin and I went to Viewmont High School together and were pretty good friends.  He was one of a group of friends that as a group could have their own blog entry here.  Perhaps I will write about the impact of the group another day, but I will say that ...

I ran into Candace Daly at the grocery store the other day and we had a chance to talk a little bit about some of the things that we have done together over the years.  It made me think about some of the things that she has done in the past that have dramatically impacted my life.  I guess that she has become a logical next entry into my blog. I met Candace initially because I was friends with her daughter Danica in high School.  In fact I remember the first time that I ever went to Danica’s home.  It was Halloween 1998 and I was a 15 year old boy with nothing to do. My step-sister Stefanie had plans to go to Danica’s house with several other girls.  When they came to pick her up they felt compassion on the sad teenage boy that had no place to be and they insisted that I come along.  From this time forward I got to know Danica and it lead to me meeting her mom.  During those high school years Candace was the Vice Chair and Chair of the Davis Cou...

Terry Curtis is one of those people that could easily disappear into the crowd.  Looking at him he is completely average and unassuming.  You could be on a bus with him and not even notice that he was there.  But when you talk to him and sit down and get to know him you will realize that he is a man of great depth and character. I got to know Terry in England where I was serving as a missionary and he was a local member of the church.  He was actually responsible for the missionary work in his ward and so we got to spend a lot of time together.  Terry was an absolute delight.  He loved music and poetry and loved the work that we were doing. Terry taught me a lot about being happy and what is really important.  He taught me about how enriching diverse cultures can be.  He was certainly an example of selfless service and love. Upon leaving that city Terry and his dear wife Rosy gave me a set of three books.  One was a great photo jou...

I started making a list of the people that have really influenced me and I decided a couple of things.  I won’t place rules on the project because, it is mine and I can do whatever I would like, but perhaps I can explain what I intend so that there will be some clarity.  First of all, I don’t think that I want to write about family members.  I may later but for right now I want to focus on outside influences.  I can’t fathom writing about the influence of family members.  They have influenced me in too many ways to write and I feel like I would certainly come up short trying to express the entirety of their influence.  Second, there are a few people on my list that are still in my life in various ways.  Some I encounter frequently and interact with through work or in the community.  I am hesitant to write about these individuals because I don’t want to influence our current relationship or appear to be trying to influence them in any way.  ...