Writing is Scary. But We’re Not. So Come to the Segullah Writing Retreat!

Here’s the truth: Every time I sit down at my computer to write, I’m a little bit afraid. Afraid that the words won’t come like I want them to. Afraid that the mysterious yawning emptiness of the story will swallow me whole. Afraid that I’m kidding myself, that this story (essay, poem) is a waste [...]

LDS Storymakers, Whitney Awards, Monsters and Mormons

A huge congratulations to all the winners and finalists of the Whitney Awards! I attended the awards dinner this year, and I loved it. I loved the food, I loved the lifetime achievement tributes to Gerald Lund and Dave Wolverton, and I loved finding out who won firsthand. The winners are: Romance: Counting the Cost, [...]

Painting 101

Admittedly, I am a registered Republican. But, an active campaign volunteer, I’ve campaigned for more Democrats than Republicans. I vote for whomever I want. And I don’t like particularly like Kool-Aid. Not at all. I loved growing up in the Pacific Northwest. But I live in Utah now and have come to love its quirks [...]

Teenage Dating–An Oxymoron?

Those of you who have teens and subscribe to the New Era know that this month’s issue is devoted entirely to teenage dating. When I handed the magazine to my eighteen-year-old son, he rolled his eyes and said, “Teenage dating—now that’s an oxymoron.” First, I was impressed that he used the word “oxymoron.” Then, I [...]

Comments I Did Not Make Yesterday in Church

Sister, I don’t care if your baby is a little noisy, no one else does either, sit down and enjoy the lesson. I really don’t think that scripture means what you think it means. Please don’t gloss over that scripture, it’s beautiful and means more than you think it does. Honey, you’re young and not [...]

Boys to Gentlemen

“Please grab the door for me, son!” I implore as, laden with Sunday bag and child, I attempt to make it through the perilous double set of doors at the church with three kids in tow. “This is how to be a gentleman,” I whisper and wink as I pass him in the breezeway. I have three [...]

In and Out

I am not exactly sure what I am trying to say or how I am going to say it, except to say that I am feeling very strongly these days that being a woman has to be about more than what we wear and how we style our hair and that if we (or rather [...]

What you want for Mothers’ Day: Sneak Preview

OUR NEW BOOK! Dance With Them: 30 Stumbling Mothers Share Glimpses of Grace Edited by Kathryn Lynard Soper Segullah Books, 230 pages Watch for ordering information next week. In the meantime, enjoy the blurb and get excited about this awesome anthology! When it comes to mothering school-age children—biological kids, step kids, or even the kids next door, [...]

Forgiveness Workshop: Be Selfish

Of all the comfort offered in Holy Writ, these words soothe my anguish, “know thou, my (daughter), that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.” D&C 122:7 I know this is true, but I really can’t sort it out. How would the sexual abuse of a child work out [...]

Putting my money where my mouth is

We have a new neighbor. A new neighbor who isn’t paying rent, who is living with the woman who owns the home. A new neighbor who is waiting to have her children, who are in foster care, reinstated to her custody, a transition that will take at least up to 5-6 weeks. A new neighbor [...]

We Want YOU!

…to come to the first-ever Segullah community event! We’re hosting a day-long WRITING RETREAT in Salt Lake City on Saturday, June 26, and it’s going to be fabulous. We love hanging out with you online, and we’re looking forward to meeting you in person to share great conversation, food, art, and writing. Check out the [...]

If Not

I’m an avid resolution maker in January, but it always seems to be April before I gather the energy to face my flaws. Something about the earlier sunrise makes it easier to get up and read or walk. Something about the plants pushing through heavy soil and blossoms weathering snow makes me want to struggle [...]

A Dream and Three Ultrasounds

First, the dream, at eight weeks pregnant: It’s my birthday and there is some kind of crisis–a doctor masked in black trying to kill people, but friends organize a huge line of women knocking on the door bringing me gifts. I wake from the dream with an overwhelming sense of being loved. I don’t understand [...]

Raising Boys, Raising Men

Over a decade ago, I was sure I was pregnant with a little girl. When the ultrasound technician pointed out “the turtle coming out of its shell” and then explained that the turtle was “boy bits”, the first thought I had was “Better not call him Abby then”, closely followed by “ARRGH! A boy? Boys [...]

Patrick Madden’s Quotidiana: A Review

A few pages into BYU English professor Patrick Madden’s collection of essays, Quotidiana, he describes what his graduate study of the essay form taught him: “I learned that essays were not stories, did not focus on great adventures or recoveries, were not extraordinary in their subject matter at all. Essayists are keen observers of the [...]

A Natural Woman

I’m glad I’m a woman. I’m glad I’m a wife. I’m glad I’m a mother. I’m glad I’m a Mormon. In fact, my Mormon-woman-wife-and-motherness is the core of my personal identity, and I recognize it as the source of my greatest blessings and opportunities for growth in this life. I am not, however, a perfect [...]

What I’ve learned about parenting so far

A few years ago a friend of mine with her husband became custodial parents of a teenage girl after her adoptive family (another family in their ward) decided they no longer wanted her. Initially, things went well with the original adoptive family. They brought her home from far away. She got along well with others. [...]

I’m Trying to Be Like. . .

Maybe this is Mormon folklore, but I have it from a source, only once removed. So from me to you it’s twice removed. Pretty reliable, right? Pertinent background info: A member of the church has a friend at work. They talk a lot, the member shares information about the church. They have good conversations, the [...]

In which the “maternity leave” decade comes to an end…

I first noticed them early in my freshman year of college. In our Biology 100 class, we sat in twos and threes. They sat alone, looking attentively in the professor’s direction, taking neat notes to read and review at their kitchen tables. We dozed, fidgeted, and looked at the clock, confident we’d figure out the [...]

UP CLOSE: Raising Boys– Getting Along

Every time I feel smug about my five sons’ kindness to each other, a scene like this ensues: (Love their tanned, summer-bruised legs. Love the way Xander stays out of the fray, just enjoying his drink. Love how Hans laughs his way through the fight. And since Gabe is so rarely involved in conflict, I [...]

The Power of Writing, 5-Year-Old Style

[Sorry for the lateness of this post! We're currently traveling, away from home, so I'm posting an old post from my personal blog for discussion.] My children were spending some quality time in their room last week for writing on my computer screen. Yes, that’s right. Ages 5 and 3 and they wrote on the [...]

Dispensation: An Enthusiastic Review

Dispensation: Latter-Day Fiction Edited by Angela Hallstrom Introduction by Margaret Blair Young Zarahemla Books, 2010 A confession: before I read Angela Hallstrom’s debut novel in 2008, I didn’t care much about LDS fiction. To me, that genre meant Jack Weyland and Gerald Lund and Anita Stansfield–overtly inspirational stories of mediocre literary quality that barely skim [...]

Lyrically speaking

We were in the car on the way to my daughter’s flute lesson. The sunroof was open to the balmy, lovely sky. Music played on the radio and we sang along to Jason Mraz’s I’m Yours. Daughter: “…listen to the music of the Mormon people dance and sing. We’re just one big family…” Me: What [...]

Hope and Power

Pushing my youngest on the swing then stepping back, I dialed my sister’s telephone number and stared up to the sky. Prayer welled up inside of me and the hope of a blessing upon this call was summoned silently. I was scared to tell her, not that she would begrudge me my news, not that [...]

Will our words condemn us?

The words you speak…or forward…or type. Commandment #9: “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.” While this is one of the less popular commandments, in the age of the Internet it is one I constantly find myself remembering. Especially when into my inbox pops some hearsay email claiming something eye opening, or purporting [...]

Conference Chat

It’s true, the General Authorities and Presidencies are not assigned topics for their General Conference talks. Yet, every conference there are topics that are addressed repeatedly. There can be little debate about the overriding theme of this conference– parenting, teaching youth, nurturing, devotion to home and family. As a parent and youth leader I felt [...]

Take the General Conference Challenge!

Can you feel it in the air? General Conference is here. And it’s about time. Conference seems to come just when we need it, just when our collective well is running dry. What if it were one week later? We’d never make it! I can hardly wait to spend the weekend in my pajamas, making [...]

Standing in Holy Places

Rosalyn Eves is a (mostly) stay-at-home mom to two young children, currently living in Southern Utah with her chemistry professor husband. She has a BA in English from BYU and an MA and PhD in English from Penn State, which she puts to use by teaching the occasional composition class at a local university. In [...]

A Not Very Talented Girl

At age fifteen I compiled a list of everything I wished I could be: a world-class ice skater/skier/tennis player, amazing ballerina, professional-quality singer/harpist/cellist/pianist and speaker of multiple languages. My list of all the talents I wanted was very, very long. In reality I could do none of these things even vaguely well. I struggled hard [...]