All the World’s a Critic

Have you heard the three rules of human relationships? First, don’t criticize. Second, don’t criticize. Hmm, and what’s the third one again?

A God of Details, Embracing Smallness

“So what does that painting mean? I don’t mean that it is bad or anything, but does it have any purpose or significance or is a just a design?,” one of my friends asked. The rest of the party conversations in the room halted. People turned to me, and to the painting to see how [...]

A gathering of saints

Last night I was reminded in a literal way what I find beautiful about gathering together with my sisters in Zion.

See Jane Run

I am a runner. I get up to run every morning at 5:30 with my faithful friend. We pound out the steps in the inky blue blackness, watching the sky start to lighten over the eastern mountains. During the summer, the suns rays will shoot over the mountain top toward the western valley, but we [...]

More Righteous

Self-righteous behavior makes me cringe. Ooh, I despise it all– holier than thou testimonies, finger-pointing, long Pharisee-like checklists…. Why?

A stone’s throw Part II

Obviously this (see Part I if you haven’t already) resonates with people in a very personal and painful way. So why do you think we–I dare say especially as women–continue to do the very same thing to others?

A stone’s throw

As I sat down with my family on the back row of the chapel I forced back unwanted tears and tried to ignore the bitter sting of what had just transpired. Someone–a good person whom I knew was well-intentioned–had just taken me to task based on something they had overheard my 13-year-old daughter say in [...]

Hi, My Name is Jennie and I’m Lazy

I just don’t feel like doing anything hard lately. Or unpleasant. Or boring. My workouts have dwindled from enthusiastic walk/running on the treadmill to a trip upstairs a couple of times a day. My “diet”, begun in January, now features chips and salsa (because salsa is healthy—it’s vegetables after all. And tortillas are corn—another vegetable) [...]

The First Time

I’ll always remember my first time: My first official eyebrow grooming, my induction into the ladies elite society of vanity— when my mom cradled my head in her lap, a pair of tweezers poised above me. And my legs slant across the bed in a waning afternoon sunshine, the breeze from my brother’s bedroom window [...]

House of Cards

Back in college, I’m sure there were sad and terrible things that happened around me; I was oblivious to it. I was filled with what many bitterly call the “arrogance of youth”. I saw pain and suffering from a well-buffered distance. A girl in our apartment complex was killed in a car accident, and I [...]

Chastity is my favorite!

This is a post by our newest recruit, Miss Frances Johnson. Here’s what she says about herself: I’m a 27-year-old journalist and aspiring celebrity blogger living (and unexpectedly thriving) in salt lake city. i love words, riding my bike, long discussions over dinner (preferably cooked by someone else), singing in my car, brushing my teeth [...]

“But for her there was neither peace nor rest”

When I was a little girl, my aunt gave me a copy of Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tales. It was a big book with a beautiful blue binding and full color illustrations, and I spent a couple of years with that book on my nightstand so I could read and re-read it. Not because I [...]

Some things just don’t bend the way they used to

I have a very distinct memory of one of the first times I thought my husband was the most amazing person ever.

Celebrating Green

Kelly, hunter, sage, mint, olive, forest, seafoam, army. Grass, leaves, pines. Apples, avocados, broccoli, celery, lettuce, limes.

The Facebook-era Prophet

I joined Facebook a few weeks ago. It was a panicky feeling, reminiscent of junior high, when I looked over at the “friend” list and saw zero. Zero friends! I humbly petitioned my Segullah friends to please be my Facebook friends too. And then I asked my brothers and sisters. And their spouses. And also [...]

Curious about Mormon Temples? Go to a believer

Today I’ve stolen(with permission of course) a guest post right off another blog: letstalkaboutreligionandpolitics(ooh, we’d love to see you there!) Ruth Mitchell is a quilt-tying, cookie baking, secretly novel-writing mother of 4. Happily, her husband’s schooling has landed her in beautiful Southern California where she can see the spires of the San Diego Temple from [...]

Critical

I often am very selfish. I want things to be my way, I want to keep control. I find that in many things, I prefer to do it alone because I have total creative control over the outcome (the hall closet is organized in the ‘correct’ way because I did it, the bed looks right [...]

Delighting in Fatness

Sobs muffled my voice as I phoned my husband from the doctor’s office, “Is everything OK?” he worried,”Is the baby all right?” “Yes. Yes. It’s just that I’ve exercised every day, I’ve been following the stupid diabetic diet and I’ve still gained 10 lbs. this month! I’m getting so FAT. What is wrong with my [...]

On Accepting Pain and the Imperfect Life

I used to be a runner jogger. (Oh, how I miss jogging! Blast those bulging discs!) But I should confess that I never, no never, no never did hills. Before I jogged, I did aerobics. (Yes, I was a fit college student. Actually, truth be told, jogging was a way to deal with an obsession [...]

The perfect testimony?

Over the past few years, since they’ve really been emphasizing that you should only be bearing brief testimonies about the five key points of the gospel, I have more or less stopped bearing my testimony. I’m not sure who would want to hear me go up to the pulpit and recite a list of five [...]

My New List

We had a Stake Relief Society Conference this past weekend. My husband worries when I go to things like this, the same way he frets a bit as general conference weekend approaches. He says its because I come home discouraged and stressed out. I go with enthusiasm, furiously take notes, listen, try to focus and [...]

The birth of a perfectionist

We noticed while reading essays for this year’s Heather Campbell personal essay contest that many of the entries focused on the writers’ perfectionist tendencies. We also agree that perfectionism is something that many of us on the staff struggle with. So we decided to devote some time on the blog to discussing it. Over the [...]

Kathryn Soper to be interviewed by Carole Mikita

Tune in to KSL tomorrow morning at 8 A.M. to hear Carole Mikita interview our brilliant editor-in-chief, Kathryn Soper. I’m excited to hear this; Kathy has great wisdom and a great sense of humor. I will be tuning in!

Mormon Idol

How do you feel about Mormon Pop Stars? Have you ever been to a church meeting to find one ‘making the circuit’?

Beyond Mommy: Knowing Who I Am

Annette Lyon is the mother of four children ages six to thirteen. While thrilled to be past the diaper and sleep-deprivation stages, she’s a little freaked that her kids are growing up too fast. Tower of Strength, the fourth novel in her historical temple series, is Annette’s sixth book, now on shelves. She blogs at [...]

Supper of my Discontent

You guys, I am a friendly person. I am a natural chit-chatter, and I think my easy-going, fun nature is fairly obvious to most people at church. But that doesn’t seem to matter. You see my family has never been invited to anybody’s house for dinner. I have been chalking that up to my six [...]

100%

When I was a teenager I had a swim coach that used to give us versions of the same pep talk before each meet. “Don’t tell me you’ll give me 110%,” he’d say. “Just give me 100%– your true 100%.” Like all sports analogies, I’ve always took this to mean something grander in life than [...]

Let me tell you about the birds & the bees…

I started my lecture that Thursday morning by polling the students in the upper division family science course I was teaching at BYU. “How many of you had ‘the talk’ with your parents?” 25% of my students in my raised their hands. “How many had homes where sexuality was discussed openly and on repeated occasions?” Again 25% of my class [...]

Connecting

It is while walking behind them–my mother pushing the wheelchair, my daughter stretching back to hold my grandma’s hand–that I am struck by the brevity of life. We are four generations of time, walking together. Grandma’s hands have wrapped around the tiny infant fingers of my mother, my own as a little girl, and now [...]