Names, Labels and Lists
“Hi, my name’s Kellie/Kel/Sister George, and I – what?” What comes next? In the past month I’ve had to write a bio paragraph and introduce myself to three different groups. Each situation was far from simple or easy. Sure, some parts were fairly constant. Like my name. The fact that I have kids is usually [...]
Segullah’s 2009 Whitney Favorites
This year I have had the great pleasure of reading the Whitney finalists with Shelah. We agree about enough of the books to have fun discussing them, and disagree enough to make it interesting. After much emailing and talking, these are the Official Segullah Whitney Award Choices. Ballots are due April 3, and the winners [...]
Math is hard
Last July I did a brave thing. I overcame my fear of being judged and dragged my sorry and broken body (hip, shoulder, knees and toes) to the gym. A certain gym chain that has a bit of a rep for being a bit of a meat market and sporting a lot of silicone (or [...]
Depression Roundtable, Part V: Parenting Children with Depression
Welcome to Part IV of Segullah’s UP CLOSE series about depression. Parts I, II, III and IV can be found here, here, here and here. If you haven’t already read the series overview, please do so before proceeding. In our fifth and final post in this depression roundtable series, we turn the discussion to the challenge of [...]
Be Not Afraid
A few weeks ago, I learned how to surf. It was one of my goals for the year, and I happened to be in Australia, which seemed like as good a place as any to make it happen. So I spent a sunny Saturday morning in surf school and ultimately, I am pleased to say, [...]
Money Money Money
I stood idly in the coffee shop while Celia chose a bottled water and fished $2 out her purse for the cashier. We ambled back out into the mall as she popped the lid and took a long drink. “Aren’t you thirsty?” she asked. “Um yeah. ” I bit my lip and looked away. “Then [...]
The Winds Will Blow; I Will Listen.
I was a young-married with two toddler sons and we were on a two-year adventure on the pacific coast when my maternal grandfather died. I remember thinking about my Grampy in the evening of his life, the build-up of the tempest, far-away and non-threatening. His death became somehow anticlimactic because it happened 3,000 miles east [...]
My Mother, Yitta, and Myrna Loy
“When a woman fantasizes about her baby, she also fantasizes about how she will be as a mother, the two dreams mingle.” Sheila Kitzinger, Ourselves as Mothers My mother was five-years old when Father Knows Best graduated from radio to her black and white television set. At ten, she added Leave it to Beaver to [...]
What do you dream of?
Well this is embarrassing. We have another blank day on the blog. Consider us blog editors duly chastened. So let’s have some fun and hear from you. It is our readers and commenters that make Segullah a fresh, vibrant community. It is your experiences and thoughts that teach us. If you please, answer at least [...]
Depression Roundtable, Part IV: Family Ties
Welcome to Part IV of Segullah’s UP CLOSE series about depression. Parts I, II, and III can be found here, here, and here. If you haven’t already read the series overview, please do so before proceeding. This week, our discussion turns to how depression affects family relationships. We welcome Phoebe, Leah, and Esther to the table [...]
Dear to the Heart of the Shepherd
Today’s Up Close guest post is by Sunny Smart. She is a stay at home mom with four wonderful, hilarious kiddos and one hard-working, good-natured husband. She has battled depression at various times in her life and to varying degrees. She wanted to share her story so that others who suffer silently and alone might [...]
Success as Joy’s Counterfeit
What if the famous scripture in 2 Nephi 2:25 read this way? “Adam fell that man might be; and men are, that they might be successful.” I’m sure most of you, like me, would find such a scripture discouraging and irritating and false instead of inspiring and hopeful and true. But sometimes I look around [...]
Boy jobs vs. girl jobs
My husband’s work schedule has ramped up, and he’s not been home very much. The upshot of this is that I am now fully aware of everything he did around the house. I also realize that I resent having to do boy jobs. 0
“You are welcome here.”
Three weeks ago I stepped off the plane in Amman, Jordan. “Welcome,” the immigration officer nodded as he snapped my picture and passed me back my freshly stamped passport. If there was any one word I would come to hear a thousand times in 10 days it was welcome. In fact, it is the word I think of first when I think of Jordan. [...]
In the Company of Angels
I’m almost done reading the Whitney finalists! Exclamation point because thirty books is a lot, and while I’ve enjoyed it, it will feel good to be done with the last one. Shelah and I are going to talk more about our favorites in a couple of weeks. You can also visit Shelah’s blog for her [...]
Depression Roundtable, Part III: Feeling Better
Welcome to Part III of Segullah’s UP CLOSE series about depression. Parts I and II can be found here and here. If you haven’t already read the series overview, please do so before proceeding. This week, our band of scriptural sisters share how they’ve successfully managed their clinical depression. These personal experiences are being shared [...]
Mormon Women’s Lit On Tour!
Sometimes I really hate that time-sucking, Farmville-ridden, ever-present vehicle of procrastination we know as Facebook. But I’ve gotta credit the site for reconnecting me with many long-lost friends, some of whom I’m actually glad to hear from. One of these is Joanna Brooks. When we got in touch twenty years after our BYU days, I was [...]
The Onion of Age
“The way you grow old is kind of like an onion or like the rings inside a tree truck or like my little wooden dolls that fit one inside the other, each year inside the next one. That’s how being eleven years old is. You don’t feel eleven. Not right away. It takes a few [...]
Warning! Poetry!
I would hugely appreciate such a warning, as I am incredibly wary of poems. They are dangerous, wily creatures that lie in ambush, lurking stealthily beneath words in my personal scary wilderness. Seemingly restful and innocent, luring me in closer to the stunning flourishes, the polished simplicity, the sweetness of gentle phrases, incredibly lovely to [...]
Notes for my pockets
“The most exciting movement in nature is not progress, advance, but expansion and contraction, the opening and shutting of an eye, the heart, the mind. We throw our arms wide with a gesture of religion to the universe; we close them around a person. We explore and adventure for a while and then draw in [...]
“Let’s Give It Up For Wayne!”
Several weeks ago I found myself standing in front of a crowded auditorium, speaking to hundreds of eager high school jazz players who had come to hear Wayne Bergeron, a Grammy-award-winning jazz trumpet player, instruct them. It was my job to introduce Wayne and to “pump up” the audience. “You know that I’m just a [...]
How Do We Know?
My husband assigned our four-year-old son Cole the FHE lesson last night. About half hour before FHE on the way home from a playdate he and I got around to planning. It went something like this, Me-What do you want to do for the lesson tonight? Cole-I don’t want to do the lesson. Me-Well, it’s [...]
Leggings with feet in them
A few years ago, Jessica Seinfeld’s Deceptively Delicious was all the rage among the moms I knew. My oldest, now nine, survives on a diet of chicken nuggets, cheeseburgers, fruit roll ups, orange juice and chocolate milkshakes, and many well-intentioned friends suggested I buy the book. They knew about my struggles to get him to [...]
Depression Roundtable, Part II: Depression and Spirituality
Welcome to Part II of Segullah’s UP CLOSE series about depression. Part I can be found here. If you haven’t already read the series overview, please do so before proceeding. Priscilla: I was 27 when I had my third child and first post partum depression. At least, that what I thought it was, so I read [...]
things
Yesterday, I wrote on my personal blog about my mother’s piano. As religious people, we take the attitude of eschewing worldly things, of treasuring our relationships, not our possessions. And yet, I feel a great spiritual peace in my mother’s gorgeous grand piano (which is now mine). Perhaps a bit foolishly, I offered up my [...]
My Old Pigeonhole
I started out as “the smart one” in my family. My little sister had waist-length golden hair which automatically made her “the pretty one”. Eventually, though, she got a bad perm, had crooked teeth grown in and started getting much better grades, so she became “the smart one” and I, an extremely bratty teenager, became [...]
The Pleasures of the Flesh
He seems to love Wii more than me. And he is six, and who knew this rampant need to play video games was buried inside his fingertips and probably stretches deep: up his limbs to his firm, round shoulders? I’ve lamented this fact since the Wii arrived for Christmas, and I have people try to [...]
Feeling the Loss
One of the things I love the most about participating in a faith is the sense of optimism it provides–the glass-half-full outlook that assures us that even when life is hard, God has the power to consecrate our afflictions for our gain (2 Nephi 2:2). As C.S. Lewis stated, “God can make good of all [...]
Depression Roundtable, Part I: In the Beginning
Welcome to Part I of Segullah’s UP CLOSE series about depression. If you haven’t already read the series overview, please do so before proceeding. In this post, our group members introduce themselves by describing how they came to recognize depression as a problem in their life. Depression is an untidy concept, and our semantics reflect that. [...]
UP CLOSE: Depression Roundtable Series Overview
Today marks the debut of Segullah’s UP CLOSE series on depression. These posts (weekly throughout March) are excerpts from a conversation amongst Segullah staff members, including myself, who live with clinical depression. We have taken pseudonyms for privacy purposes. I’m currently moderating a similar series of posts at By Common Consent. Every human being is [...]
Spring is in the air . . .
… and here at Segullah we’re turning over new leaves left and right. This morning we’re launching our new blog format, courtesy of genius web artist Johnna Cornett. And that’s just the beginning. Spring 2010 marks our forum’s 5th anniversary, and we’re excited to celebrate! Check out our freshly designed journal site, which includes a [...]
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- June 2013 Editorial and Table of Contents June 15, 2013As summer arrives in North America, the freshness of the air and the brightness of the trees set the perfect ... keep reading […]
- Life Piled on Life June 15, 2013Under the grandstand, Doreen and I found pop bottles to cash in for pop. We were poor, but we were ... keep reading […]
- The Facts of Life June 15, 2013You come to me drowning in doubt. Fourth grade can be cruel when discerning truth. We sit in near-dark, my ... keep reading […]
- Consolidate June 15, 2013The kitchen table was thick and dark. As children, my brother, sister, and I would throw blankets over it and ... keep reading […]
- To Martha and Her Fragrant Home August 1, 2007Spikenard lingers. While loaves and garlic and fruits, her perfumes, Float, too, Filling to walls, drawing souls For nourishment For ... keep reading […]
- Alex, 9 May 1, 2006Cool you are, and warm. Your nine-year-old body still knows how to romp, Careen in delight, Rejoice in flight of ... keep reading […]
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