Welcome To My Website

Welcome to my website! So this is the fabulous page where I get to address you in first person. Ah, that feels good. I’m so glad that you’ve come to look around. As you can see, I’m just getting started. This is a new and exciting adventure for me. I’ve always thought that it would be so amazing to be able to write music, but I never thought that I had what it took to actually be the one behind the notes. But God knew better than I did. He always does, you know.

About two years ago I was asked to sing for a meeting in my church, and when I was told the topic for the event, a tiny idea popped into my mind. ”Wouldn’t it be great if there was a song specifically crafted with this topic in mind?” Well, from that little idea bloomed an original song…. my first in this crazy new journey. After that I assumed that maybe I would try song-writing on the side over the years. It could be a fun thing to figure out over time, after all.

But again, Father in Heaven had bigger, more immediate things in mind. A few short months later, a new book was released, specifically for the women of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It is called “Daughters in My Kingdom”. I was challenged to read it right away. I’ve never been one to shirk a challenge, so I picked it up and went to work. To be honest, it took me a few days to really get into it. But once I began to see the vision and the scope of its message, I was mesmerized. It is a beautiful book full of wonderful truths. It teaches us women about our true identity as daughters of our heavenly Father and King. By the time I had finished reading the book, I felt empowered and inspired to step up and do more to make the world a better place. So I started to talk with my friends and neighbors about the things that I had read. Many of them had not yet read the book. Or they had tried to read it, but had gotten side-tracked for one reason or another. And that’s when another little thought came to my mind. ”Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was music to go along with the stories in the book?” I’ve always been touched by music. For me, music makes things come alive. It quickens my memory and enlightens my mind. Ask me to memorize words printed on a page, and I struggle. Put words to music,however, and I can have them down within minutes.

As I pondered this fascinating idea, more little thoughts started to come. Possible song titles came to mind and melodies started to play through my head. So, I did what any novice song-writer does, and I went to Google (Ha!  Hopefully you’re chuckling right now at the absurdity of this decision). I searched for information on song-writers I knew about and loved. I read their bios and scoured their websites. The more I researched, the more discouraged I became. These folks had been writing music for a great majority of their lives, some since the wee age of 6! That put me about 10 or 20-ish years behind.  Who did I think I was? Me, a song-writer…. yeah, right.

Well, despite my discouragement, I did at least start to write down a few ideas. I played with melodies, chord progressions and lyrics in my spare time (read here: “very, very late at night when the house is actually quiet and I should probably be asleep”). I actually managed to write a song or two. But mostly, I doubted. I doubted myself and my abilities. I worried about failure. I stressed about my inadequacies. At the end of the day, however, this persistent feeling that time was of the essence became stronger day by day.

So, with the crazy idea that I could write an entire program of original music complete with narration from the book, my husband and I went to God in fasting and prayer. If this was something that He thought I could do, I would give it my best effort. I would push all of my fears aside and offer Him my time and my talents. And I would trust that with Him as the Master musician, this simple instrument could somehow create and produce something beautiful.

Well, you’re smart. I bet that you can guess what we felt from Him through this process. I wouldn’t be here writing this story if the answer had been to not pursue song-writing. We felt so strongly that this was something I needed to do, that we jumped in and haven’t looked back since. It’s been an amazingly difficult, yet rewarding journey so far. And in one week, a significant group of women will participate in and hear performed this entire program.

So be sure to check back soon, and I’ll let you know how it went! I’ll also be sharing some of the little tender mercies I’ve seen along the way. Oh, and in the weeks to come I’ll be posting a few of my hymn arrangements as free downloads. I’d love for you to sing them in your families and in church. Get comfortable here, bookmark my page, and don’t be a stranger. I’m excited to have you along for the ride.