Heidi Swinton is an LDS author.
Q: The theme for 2002 Education Week is 'Finding Shelter from the Storm.' As a prominent public figure, what do you do or where to you go to get away from the world and find peace? What do you consider your personal 'shelter from the storm?'
A: When I need to 'turn away from the wind' I turn to the Lord, to my husband and my family. Often times I walk through the cemetery in Salt Lake to the grave of our oldest son. There is tremendous comfort and strength in realizing the great blessings of the Plan of Salvation and the Lord's love for his children. I remember the peace I felt when we buried our infant son. It was the most difficult day of my life and yet I knew real peace. I felt it. I remind myself of that promise from the Lord in John: 'Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.'
Q: Many people think the answers to life's questions lie in fame, wealth and power. As members of the church, we tend to have a different view. How do you keep a balance between the important things you do in your life's work, and the things that are most important in your personal life?
A: I put my family first. I have always seen my family as my life's work and my personal work. I share my research and writing with my family. My best advisor and counselor in my writing projects is my husband. I have chosen to focus my writing on church-related projects so that I can draw on the spirit of the Lord as I work. Hence, the writing process is of spiritual importance. I am uncomfortable getting out in front of the messages I have the opportunity to craft.
Q: How do you deal with publicity? Does it ever get too invasive?
I subscribe to President Hinckley's counsel: Adulation is poison. I am uncomfortable with publicity because it puts the emphasis on the person rather than on the work being done. Most of what I have had the opportunity to write had little to do with me and everything to do with the furthering the work of the Lord.
Q: How did you prepare early in life to get where you are?
A: By making right decisions at the appropriate time and setting while growing up. Writing became a passion and I expanded upon it in classes and journalistic application throughout my school years.
Q: How did your education influence what you do now?
A: I am a journalist by training. I have been trained to make sense of what is happening, what are the influences that act behind the scenes. I am interested in all the players of a story or account, even those who seem to stand on the edges. I find that good research is essential to my writing. And I spend a great deal of time trying to ground my ideas in spiritual principles.
Q: What or who influenced they way you look at the world?
A: The greatest influence in my work is my study of the scriptures and my love for the work of God. I find such satisfaction in knowing that I can help - in some small way - in furthering his work. One of my heroes is Joseph Knight, Sr. When Joseph Smith was translating the gold plates, he took a wagon load of supplies to the young prophet. He took 'a barrel of mackerel and some lined paper for writing.' I love that each one of us makes us difference in moving forward this work. Each of us has a wagon of supplies. Mine is research and writing.
Q: How do you deal with people who solicit you for favors? How do you choose who to help and who to pass by, in light of the church's focus and policies on charitable contributions?
A: I do what I feel the Lord would have me do. I made that decision when I jumped off the track of a professional career. What is important is the message, not me. So if I can help and it is appropriate with my church assignments, I am willing to say, 'Here am I, send me.'
Q: Was there a single turning point in your life that you consider 'made' you? If so, what was it?
A: In my college years, I had intended to pursue a writing career for a national publication. I went to a prestigious graduate school that would have opened all the right doors. But I realized early in that schooling that I had done the wrong thing. Put simply, I got zapped. So I chose to follow a different path than where that was taking me. I realized that such pursuit would take me away from the work of the Lord. I shifted my plans. I married my sweetheart; I chose to raise a family; I did my writing on the side. I have always felt fulfilled with that focus.
It has been tested. There have been times when I have had to lay my efforts on the altar, so to speak, and walk away. I have had to learn how to consecrate my work rather than be known for my work.
Q: Is it difficult to live your religion? Why or why not?
A: Absolutely not. I don't feel like I live my religion. I hope that my religion and I are one. I have tried to incorporate not only principles and practices but the long-range perspective in what I choose to do. Hence, I will pass up a writing opportunity because it doesn't have a spiritual base and working on it will take me nowhere. I want the Lord 'on my right hand and on my left' and so I write gospel related materials.
Q: Has your affiliation with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints put up any roadblocks on your path to success, or have you found it has opened doors?
A: Success can only be measured in how much closer a project takes you to the Lord. Success in any other measure is simply hollow fame or fortune.
Q: Do you consider yourself an example to church members, especially the youth of the church? Why or why not?
A: I have raised four sons. I have put my heart and soul into the charge of being a mother. I don't hold myself up as an example outside my home. But I hope that my willingness to work hard in Church callings and in my writing has instilled in those close to me a similar work ethic that we are on the Lord's errand.
Q: To what do you credit your success?
A: Actually success and accepting disappointments both require the same tools. I work hard. I pray. I work harder. I read and study. I have learned to not measure success in worldly terms. I have a very strong support system of my husband, my sons and daughters-in-law. Also from my mother and brothers and sister and my friends.
Q: If you could have done something differently with your life, what would it have been?
Learn to be a morning person rather than a night person.
Q: What are your goals for the future?
A: To carry on.