Seeing Hope as Trust
Ghia – Have you ever wondered which comes first Faith or Hope? This week Ghia talks about the archaic definition of Hope, which is Trust! What a difference this concept has made in her life!
Transcript
Hooray, GIA here.
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:Welcome to the Creative Spiritual
Journey podcast, where Judy and I talk
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:about those things that bring us joy.
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:For me, I find joy by connecting
with nature, connecting with Jesus
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:Christ and our heavenly parents.
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:Seasonal living, and all the bits of magic
and wonder I come across while navigating
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:this remarkable journey we call life.
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:Wow.
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:Does it feel like spring
has arrived where you are?
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:Things are starting to move faster.
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:After the slow, dark winter,
there is more energy in the air.
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:Can you feel it?
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:Okay.
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:Not in South Africa where they're moving
into fall, but here in southeastern Utah,
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:it's warm one day and then cold the next.
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:But the flowers are blooming.
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:The lizards are starting to run around,
and I am getting ready for Easter.
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:This year, Easter is almost
three weeks later than last year,
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:which makes the seasonal change
seem that much more dramatic.
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:It's kind of crazy how
much Easter moves around.
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:Did you know that Easter is always
the Sunday after the Pascal full Moon?
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:Do you know that word, Pascal?
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:I had to look it up.
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:It comes from the Hebrew word,
meaning Passover, and it is
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:related to Easter because of
Christ becoming the Pascal lamb.
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:The Pascal moon is the first
full moon that follows the spring
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:equinox in the Northern hemisphere.
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:You won't be surprised to learn that.
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:I love that.
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:The date of Easter is determined by
both the solar and the lunar cycle.
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:It has so much significance to me that
these two celestial bodies together
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:determine this all important holy day.
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:But believe it or not, I am not going
to talk about the moon or the sun today.
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:Well, maybe I will reference them a
little, but they're not the main topic.
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:My topic today came from a single line
in a conference talk by Elder Anderson.
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:He said, quote.
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:Hope is a living gift, a gift that grows
as we increase our faith in Jesus Christ.
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:What hope is living, it grows.
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:You've got to know that.
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:I would love that to anthropomorphize.
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:An inanimate object is fun, but
to anthropomorphize a word or
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:feeling that's over the top.
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:But it's okay because I'm not
the only one that does it.
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:You know the scripture, John?
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:One, one.
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:In the beginning was the word, and the
word was with God, and the word was God.
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:If God can be a word, then hope can
be alive, and I'm going with it.
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:so this Easter seemed like the
perfect time to talk about hope.
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:It's spring, the light is increasing
and things are starting to grow.
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:the act of a tiny seed.
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:Growing into a plant represents the
potential for something small to become
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:something significant, and our hope, if
watered and nourished, can grow as well.
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:Easter whispers of New beginnings,
A time when hope can bloom, like
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:spring flowers, and there is more
to this hope and spring correlation.
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:Nephi used the words a
perfect brightness of hope.
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:Hope just naturally
seems to radiate light.
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:Elder Anderson went on to say like
a light whose brilliance grows.
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:Hope brightens the darkened world
and we see our glorious future.
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:he also said, and let me paraphrase
this, like an eclipse of the sun, SUN,
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:if we block the light of the sun, SON,
it will result in an eclipse of hope.
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:Ah, see more references
to the sun and the moon.
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:Yes, I love it.
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:You can eclipse hope if you
aren't paying attention.
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:So today on this beautiful spring
day coming up on Easter, I want
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:to share some thoughts about hope.
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:I have to say that hope has always been
baffling to me because I thought you
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:should have hope and then faith, you hope
for something to be true, and then you
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:develop the faith to believe it's true.
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:That is the way it
always made sense to me.
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:Does anyone else think this way?
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:I mean, when you look up the definition
for the word hope, the first one that
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:comes up is a feeling of expectation,
a desire for a certain thing to happen.
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:I hope to feel better soon,
or I hope to get the job.
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:To say I have hope in Jesus Christ
sounds so much weaker to me than
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:I have faith in Jesus Christ.
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:But when you read the scriptures, they
always say, faith, hope, and charity.
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:Faith comes before hope, implying
we need faith and then we get hope.
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:but you know what?
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:If you're like me, you think, well,
maybe whoever wrote these words just
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:wasn't too worried about the order.
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:But unfortunately that isn't
the case because there are other
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:more clarifying scriptures.
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:Moroni 7 42 says, if a man have
faith, he must needs have hope for.
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:Without faith, there can't be any hope.
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:Faith comes first.
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:What is the deal?
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:Ah.
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:Then one day I found an unexpected answer.
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:As I read further down in the dictionary,
I found a different definition for hope.
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:The archaic definition
for hope is trust, trust.
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:Oh, that makes so much more sense to me.
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:First, I have faith in the
Lord and then I can trust him.
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:Now, every time I see the word hope, I
substitute trust and see how it sounds.
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:It doesn't make sense everywhere,
but it does in a lot of places.
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:Here are a few examples where I
have traded the word trust for hope.
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:These are all verses from the Psalms.
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:Hope thou in God becomes
trust thou in God.
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:I hope in thy word becomes
I trust in thy word.
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:Let Israel hope in the Lord becomes
let Israel trust in the Lord.
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:I love Sister Tracy Browning, who
is currently the second counselor
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:in the primary general presidency.
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:In her amazing talk seeking
answers to spiritual questions,
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:she quotes Elder Scott.
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:He said to exercise, faith is to trust
that the Lord knows what he is doing with
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:you and that he can accomplish it for
your eternal good, even though you cannot
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:understand how he can possibly do it.
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:End quote.
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:It has been a journey for me, but I
think I am beginning to trust the Lord.
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:I am learning that he is always working
in my life and that he has a plan,
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:and that if I don't get what I want,
I can assume that it is part of his
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:plan and I will get something better.
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:Have you heard this idea of
getting something better?
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:I learned it from Sister Wendy Nelson.
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:Let me give you a brief rundown of
a story she told in one of her books
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:Before she and President Nelson had
announced their engagement publicly,
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:Wendy went out with a friend to
look for a new home for the couple.
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:When Wendy thought she had found
the perfect place, she asked her
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:friend to pray with her requesting
that she be able to get the house.
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:Her friend prayed saying, help
Wendy get this house, but if not
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:this house, then something better.
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:Wendy went home pondering those words,
if not this house, then something better.
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:She later called her friend and said.
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:I didn't know you could do that.
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:Ask for something better.
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:This moment highlights the profound
truth that even when we think we know
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:what we want, there may be something
better that we haven't yet imagined.
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:Okay?
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:so now I have to tell you my
story of getting something better.
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:I decided I wanted to live in a small,
remote ski town on the east side of the
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:Sierra Nevada mountains called Mammoth.
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:Amazingly, I found a good job.
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:But to my disappointment, I
couldn't find a place to live.
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:This was before the internet, so I
had to wait a whole week for a new
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:issue of the newspaper to come out.
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:Every time I wanted to check the listings,
it was a slow, frustrating process.
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:In the meantime, my daughter and
I were living out of my truck.
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:I honestly didn't think it was too bad.
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:I mean, I was anxious to find a place
to live, but I thought we were okay.
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:So I was really surprised a couple
weeks ago when my daughter, who
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:was all grown up now reminded me
how she had to take a bath in the
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:stream before going to high school.
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:I conveniently forgot that part
of the story, and apparently I
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:permanently traumatized my daughter.
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:Well, we did eventually
find a place to live.
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:It just wasn't what I wanted.
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:Okay.
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:Mammoth had some really cute
little cabins nestled in the
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:woods, and I really, really wanted.
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:One week after week, I would
search the paper to no avail.
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:Finally, someone in the tiny mammoth
branch that we were going to told me about
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:a trailer that was becoming available.
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:I did not.
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:Did not want to live in a trailer,
but in the end I had to take it.
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:What could I do?
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:Winter was coming.
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:The reality is that that trailer turned
out to be a blessing for one thing.
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:Unlike other places I had
looked at, it had two bathrooms.
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:This allowed me to sublet a bedroom and
a bathroom and still have a bathroom
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:and a bedroom for my daughter and me.
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:And for the other thing, it was right in
the middle of town, not out in the boonies
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:where most of the little cabins were.
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:This became particularly useful when
I got a second job as a taxi driver.
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:I.
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:In fact, in the end, I was so grateful
for my trailer that on several
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:occasions I recall bearing my testimony
about how God knew what I needed a
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:place in town with two bathrooms.
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:Then I often jokingly added, but
I'm sure if God had wanted to,
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:he could have gotten me a little
cabin in town with two bathrooms.
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:It wasn't until it was time for me to
move from Mammoth that I received my
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:final miracle in relation to this trailer.
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:I was so sad to leave Mammoth.
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:I loved the little branch.
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:I loved my job.
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:I loved living in the
mountains next to whiskey area.
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:I mean, it was my dream come true.
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:Can you see what's coming?
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:The best thing about leaving
Mammoth was leaving that trailer.
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:If I had had to leave a cute little
cabin, how much harder would it have been?
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:It wasn't until I was moving that I
was finally grateful for that trailer.
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:I didn't get a little cabin, but
in the end I got something better.
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:I can't say I have 100% learned this
lesson of hope and trust, because
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:sometimes in the moment it is so hard
to trust that there could be something
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:better than exactly what I want.
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:But I do think that slowly I am learning.
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:I.
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:Judy and I know your time is precious
and that you have many choices.
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:We love that you have chosen to
walk with us for a few minutes as
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:we navigate this journey of life.
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:If you like this podcast, will you take
the time right now to share it with a
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:friend, share it somewhere on social
media, or leave us a five star rating.
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:Your efforts will help this podcast make
a bigger impact in the world and will
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:tell Judy and me that you like our show
and give us the motivation to keep going.
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:Thank you in advance for your help,
and as Martin Luther King said.
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:Everything that is done in
the world is done by hope.
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:Namaste.
