Segullah

Mormon women blogging about the peculiar and the treasured

Storytelling: Making something from nothing

Now for something completely different….
This week’s Book Challenge.  By me.  Wow am I tired.  But here goes.
When I was young, engaged, and still trying to prove to myself and my intended that I am a deep and profound person, I picked up a copy of “The Year’s Best Short Stories” (or something like that) at the [...]

WARNING! CONTENT MIGHT BE OFFENSIVE OR WITHOUT MERIT! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!

My fourteenth wedding anniversary was a couple of weeks ago. I didn’t know what to buy my husband to celebrate the auspicious occasion. After much searching, the Hugh Nibley and Mormon Tab CD I settled on didn’t seem quite what I was looking for. I wanted to get him something a little more racy. [...]

The Ugly Mantle

When first I was called to serve I had but two goals in mind:
1.) Get baptisms.
2.) Don’t gain weight.

Thoughts on my Thighs

I must die thin. That’s how the poem by Candace Melville starts in our most recent issue.

Book Challenge: Polygamy, Healing from Abuse, Sister Missionaries

Book Challenge:* Letters of Catharine Cottam Romney, Plural Wife; The
Glass Castle;** and 18 Months.

Letters of Catharine Cottam Romney let me peek into the life of the second wife of Miles Park Romney, an ancestor of Mitt Romney. Mitt is descended from Hannah, the first wife (you can read more about Mitt’s genealogy here). Catharine marries [...]

Doors in the Wall

The function of the brain and nervous system and sense organs are in the main eliminative and not productive. Each person is at each moment capable of remembering all that has ever happened to him and of perceiving everything that is happening everywhere in the universe. The function of the brain and nervous system is [...]

My Invisibility Cloak

I was called to my first “presidency calling” when I was 7 months pregnant. It was to the Relief Society Presidency. That calling lasted through two more pregnancies. My call to be Primary President came when I was 8 months pregnant with the fourth child. Another call to the Relief Society Presidency came at 2 [...]

The Lord Is With Us

We don’t call this earth life “the lone and dreary world” for nothing. We are strangers here, homesick for our heavenly parents, our heavenly home. In our mortal bodies we are subject to all kinds of difficulties and infirmities, both mental and physical and emotional. Our spirits struggle too. We are tempted, we make mistakes, [...]

Sabbath Day Happy Hour

Last Saturday night my husband and I were having dinner with a couple from our ward, Davey and May. Though we were all enjoying the present company, we equally lamented having to go to church the next day. If we could just go to the first meeting, take the sacrament and get on home to [...]

My Ordinary Life

This is a guest post by Liz Wolfe, who spends her days reviewing tax returns and her nights trying to forget what she does for a living. She induces this forgetfulness by reading an eclectic selection of books, writing a never-ending short story, and watching her fish swim. You can find her at Did I [...]

How to Be a Writing Parent

Check out Debra Sansing Woods’ article in Meridian Magazine.

Inconvenient Christianity

This is a guest post by Emily, who blogs at EmilyAnne.I like to think of myself as a good Christian. I welcome new neighbors with a plate of homemade cookies. I offer pro-bono babysitting services to my friends so they can go out on dates with their husbands. I give to charitable causes and donate [...]

Gone Vanity

They warned us that Grandma K didn’t look good. Her rapid decline in health had caused major weight loss, a weak voice and very little energy. They told us this on the way to her house. They worried that we’d be in shock.
They were right.

Liberating Spirits

“[Literary works] do not endure as objects but as presences. When you read anything worth remembering, you liberate a human voice. You release into the world again a companion spirit.” ”“Louise Gluck, Poet
Plaid skirts, fresh backpacks, and blank notebooks. August belly-flops into a pool of early September mornings. It’s not always a graceful [...]

You Can Always Go Home

This is an essay by Dalene Rowley, who you can find channeling her latent OCD as Compulsive Writer. After growing up in the Pacific Northwest, she moved to Provo to attend BYU. She served in the Belgium Brussels mission before finally graduating in English and French. She is married to the much-loved Mr. Rowley from [...]

My Secret Crush

I love myself.
I always have, frankly.
When I was in college, it was pretty much unadulterated arrogance. I really thought I was hot stuff. Funny thing is, it was the 80’s. Was there really anyone ‘hot’ in the 80s? Really, think about it.

I’ve Never Met a Vampire, But I Did Meet a Bully

Last night as I sat around a table eating gelato with my young women, I asked one of them if they had read Eclipse Stephanie Meyer’s latest book in her Twlight series.
“No! I’ve been everywhere and it is all sold out and I am FREAKING OUT!” said Andrea.

WWAD?

What Would Atticus Do?
Those very words have left my lips. More than once, I’m afraid. And not just during English class but while chatting with groups of 8th graders about life, liberty, and the dress code.

A Living Sacrifice, part V: Adoption

The fifth (and last) in a series of posts about women’s bodies and consecration. I’m gathering insights for an article I’m writing for the fall/winter issue of Segullah. In prior posts we discussed pregnancy, single sisterhood, miscarriage, and infertility.
I was once reading a magazine in my OB/GYN’s office when I came upon an article [...]

Fifteen Hours of “Traveling” with Wendy

Wendy is our first outside Book Challenge taker! She grew up in Northern California and currently lives in Utah with her husband, where she enjoys hiking, rock hounding, playing the piano, and being a surrogate aunt to her friend’s children. She served a mission in Arizona and New Mexico, and earned a Masters Degree [...]

Mysterious Ways?

I am in a shroud of mystery these days.
It’s either mystery or my stupidity ( I prefer the former) but what do you make of these?