Hi, I'm Janie

I live in the southern part of the United States. I'm a poet. And I'm a Mormon.

About Me

I was born in upstate New York, but because my dad was a salesman, I grew up moving all around the country, finally settling in South Carolina in my early teens. I've raised five children, who have so far given me 16 particularly beautiful grandchildren. For most of my adult life I was a stay-at-home mom, and my husband worked for the telephone company. Several years ago he was diagnosed with a brain tumor, and passed away 18 months later. And I found myself a widow, way earlier than is usual. I am now working for the American Cancer Society, a job that I simply love. My job responsibilities are to help people with cancer, which of course touches a particularly tender part of my heart. I have a side business as a photographer/poet, and have developed a kind of photography/poem/portrait that is pretty unique and gives my creative itch a good scratch. I love cooking, and have several square foot gardens that give me a lot of fresh produce for cooking experiments.

Why I am a Mormon

When I was 16 I became friends with a girl my age who was Mormon. She invited me to a New Year's Eve party and there I met a very nice young man. He called the next day, and eventually we began dating. He asked me to go to church with him, and since, in addition to my own church, I had many friends of many different denominations, I was interested to see what his church was all about. I will never forget how I felt that Sunday. The meeting was a testimony meeting, during which members who wanted to stood and bore testimony of what they believed and why. I was stunned that there were people whose beliefs were strong enough that they would stand in public and declare them to the world. I continued to attend church with this young man, and eventually decided to listen to the missionaries. When they taught the Plan of Salvation, the role of Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith's First Vision, and that I was a child of God, I can clearly remember thinking, "I already know this. I knew this before." It was as though I had known what they were telling me, and had forgotten it, and they were just reminding me. Every time I walked into the chapel of the local Mormon church, I felt as though I were coming home. There was an almost tangible warmth in the air. Eventually I decided to be baptised, and I have never regretted that decision. The covenants I made that day, standing in the water in the baptismal font, are precious to me. I simply cannot imagine what my life would have been like without the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. He is my Savior and my friend. The fact that when I make mistakes, he is there to make me whole, upon condition of my repentance...to do for me what I cannot do for myself,....makes life beautiful indeed. And....I married that nice young man. For eternity.

Personal Stories

How can your talents and gifts bless others?

One of the things that I truly believe is a gift, because I don't know how I do it, and don't understand why others can't, it being able to write poetry. Many, many people have told me that I write what they feel, and cannot put into words. One of the most enjoyable things I do is write about other people I know. It is one of the lovliest ways I know to give a compliment. I try to write about my experiences and my beliefs, through the Mormon lens. Here's an example about Mary, the mother of the Savior.

Mary

Mary –
As you held your baby,
Did you marvel
At His tiny perfection?
Did His fingers curl around yours
In a tender grip?
And did you cup the back of His small head
With your hands,
Cradling His dark curls,
As mothers always do?
When His newly opened eyes looked into yours,
Did you see what mothers always see?
Wisdom and light and….something else?
I’ve always thought you knew
Exactly who He was and what He’d do.
But what a tender mercy
That first He was your baby.
His entrance into life was different,
And full of stars.
From the very first,
Even from the day of His birth
When shepherds,
With the songs of angels still ringing in their ears,
Slipped into the stable to pay homage
To the Son of God,
Was there always someone to come to see
To look, to touch?
History does not record, but somehow I sense
That His life made your life
Different.
And yet,
As a mother,
I rejoice
That it was for you He learned to crawl, to walk, to talk.
And I thank you for your protecting love
That allowed Him to grow
To be what He needed to be
For me.
Everyone needs a mother.

What is hope and what do you hope for?

Hope is a gift from a Heavenly Father to his children while they are away from Him, here on earth. Emily Dickinson, who is one of my favorite poets, said, "Hope is a thing with feathers." And that is exactlly right. Hope lifts you up and carries you above the dark currents of mortal life. It is not wishing, which is how it is often used. "I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow." It has a much deeper, more spiritual meaning. Hope is the knowledge that life goes beyond this life, that there is more to our eternal existance that just what we are experiencing now. Hope is the product of faith.
What do I hope for? I hope for a bright tomorrow with my husband. I hope for a life with my Father in Heaven and his Son, Jesus Christ. I hope for an eternity with my husband, and my children and their children and their children....I hope to return home as His daughter, wiser and more faithful and more nearly perfect. And I have faith that these hopes can be realized.

Which of the Savior’s teachings have influenced you in your life?

The Savior talks a lot about charity in the New Testament. For a long time I thought charity meant helping people who needed something. But as I studied His life, I came to realize that charity was the pure love of Christ. It meant living a life as He lived. It meant being like Him. His hands, my hands. His words, my words. His actions, my actions. When you start to believe that, and start to act on that belief, your whole life changes. And that is what happend to me. I have really tried to stop being judgemental, to stop thinking so much about myself, and to focus on others, and their wants and needs. It has not come easily, and I'm certainly a work in progress. But truly trying to be like Him has changed my life.
The other teaching that really influenced me was a more complete understanding of the Atonement. For years and years, following my Protestant background, I thought that the Atonement meant the Jesus died on the cross for my sins. Period. End of story. But that is only a part of what the atonement means. I know now that when He was in the garden of Gethsemane, and hanging on the cross, he was suffering not only for my sins, and yours, but he also was experiencing every single bad, sad, lonely, sick, cruel thing that had happened or would happen to any of God's children. So that when we are going through life with all it's challenges, and we think no one understands, we are wrong, He does. Completely. Because he already experienced it, and can send us the exact comfort, hope, relief and so forth that we need. So not only does he advocate with the Father for us and our sins, he also carries us with complete empathy through all the bad parts of life. Knowing and understanding this simply changed me forever.

How I live my faith

In my congregation, I am the Adult Sunday School teacher. This year we are studying the Old Testament, and I really enjoy seeing how the themes of the gospel weave themselves thrroughout the scriptures. I've been a missionary, serving in California several years ago, and I had some pretty unique experiences as a missionary. For the first half of my mission I served in a small town on the coast of northern California, helping people discover their family trees. So many people in California are just one or two generations removed from another country that I found myself working on the intricacies of many languages and cultures. For the second half of my mission I had a companion from China, who had previously been a Communist. Our assignment was to introduce the gospel of Jesus Christ to the large Chinese population of the college town in which we lived. To teach Christianity to someone who has never heard of Jesus Christ was an incredible experience.

What is the Mormon lifestyle like? How do Mormons live?

Janie answered...

Mormon lifestyle.....well, I guess the simplist way to explain that is our religion touches every single part of our lives. Family prayer morning and night is the norm, as is family and personal scripture study. We certainly do not have a Sunday only religion - sometimes I think I should take a cot to the church! There are weekly activities for teenagers, and older pre-teens. The young men are involved in Boy Scouts, and the young women have their own program. The women of the church meet together socially, according to interests. In my own congregation there is a book club, a lunch buddies group, an exercise group, and a group studying the constitution. Across the world, other interests have created other groups. The high schoolers have a before-school scripture study class that meets every school day. Mormons are involved in after-school sports, politics, PTA'a, play groups, service projects, classes and on an on. Because we don't smoke, or drink coffee, tea or alcohol, we are healthier than the norm. Our health code, known as the Word of Wisdom, emphasises healthy eating, We often stand out in society because our moral standards are high, and often run contrary to what is accepted in the world today.

What is the attitude of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints regarding homosexuality and same sex marriage?

Dave answered...

We read in Genesis that one of God's first commandments to Adam and Eve was to "multiply and replenish the Earth." We believe that marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God, and the only appropriate means of multiplying and replenishing the Earth. Keeping this in mind, any sexual act that takes place that is not between a man and a woman, joined together in marriage, is forbidden.