Thursday, December 23, 2010


This week 6 of my 7 children, their spouses and children are all coming home for Christmas. I wrote some limericks to celebrate.


The family is here for the Holiday.
The Children and dogs need a place to stay.
My house is so small,
We will all have a ball.
Thank goodness next season’s a year a way.

The family is here for Christmas.
Expectations, traditions are quite a fuss.
If I do enough now,
They will ask me to bow.
Then finally they’ll call me “Your Highness.”

Friday, December 17, 2010

The Project

My assignment is to design a project for school that has heart and meaning for me.

As I thought about what I might do I had lots of ideas. I could do something to make the world a better place – maybe start a nonprofit or work with the homeless or orphans. But what really inspires me and excites me are things that seem selfish and self- centered: create a beautiful garden to love and work in; focus on my body and create “optimal health;” explore Los Angeles; complete a list of goals that I have wanted to tackle for years; establish myself as a healer, facilitating issue resolution and emotional healing.
Selfish, self-centered – is it ok for me to invest so much time exploring me and my life? Will God approve? Will I be acceptable to my family and church community?
Being obedient and doing my part is important to me, so I have devoted much of my life to doing what I was told and putting the needs of my family and church first. Giving up my needs somehow made me feel like a “good mother.” Taking the time to find out what makes me tick has been a luxury that I have been too “unselfish” to take. So now, doing a project with “me” as the focus is stepping out of my noble box.
Rather than spend my time worrying about the definition of selfish and self-centered, I can use my project to see what happens if I take a year and intentionally focus on myself.
This can be a time for me to find out what I want and how I am going to use my gifts and talents in the future. Would I be selfish on an airplane to put the oxygen mask on before I put it on my children? Maybe “selfish” and “self-centered” aren’t the evil words I have believed them to be. Maybe if I had taken the time years ago to ask myself what I thought and what I wanted, I wouldn’t feel so lost now.
Maybe being “self-centered” is the most unselfish thing I can do. Selfish or
not, I’m going for it!

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Who am I?



Who am I?

My name is Phyllis Anita Shaw Wiggins. Each one of these names has a story to tell, but I’m not my name.

I have seven wonderful children. Raising them and creating a loving home has been the main focus of my life, but I’m more than just a mother.

Grandma is something that I am called, but is that who I am?

I’ve loved my husband since I was 14, I married him at 21, and we have been happily married for 33 years, but wife is just one way to describe me.

Teacher, student, learner, quilter, cook, gardener, skier, singer, Cub Scout leader, horseback rider, reader - any one of these words can be used to describe me and what I love.

I love to philosophize and I can talk to anyone about anything for as long as they will engage in conversation. Who does that make me?

Sometimes I get frustrated and yell, curse, fight, and cry, but I don’t consider myself evil.

Secretly, I am a mystic, healer, visionary and teacher. This is who I want to say that I am, but I’ve been too scared to claim it.

So, who am I?

I am a 53-year-old woman who loves people, nature, adventure, learning and God. I do good things and I make mistakes. I struggle with perfectionism and believing in myself. Essentially, I am a beautiful child of God who is dedicated to making my truth about me harmonious with God’s truth about me.