Segullah

Mormon women blogging about the peculiar and the treasured

Book Club Reminder: The Age of Innocence, Feb. 17

Just a quick reminder that Segullah’s online book club will discuss The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton on Thursday, February 17. You still have time to read it! I’m in the middle of rereading it right now and savoring Wharton’s expertly crafted prose, rapier sharp wit, and incisive social commentary (commentary on a society—turn-of-the-20th-century [...]

The Healing Power of Creativity

“In the first weeks after the death of my daughter,” Lisa told me, “I couldn’t even look at my sewing machine or my quilts or any of the creative things I’d always loved.” “There didn’t seem to be any point,” she continued, “what was the use of my silly projects in this life where you [...]

He and Me – Can We Be (Just) Friends?

I have lots of friends. I have friends I talk books with; go to movies with; friends I sweat on or near during Kung Fu; friends that know what I look like both when I’m feeling good and (especially) when the world is trying to kill me, the way I know how they look at [...]

Confessions of a Nonathletic, Very Uncoordinated Sports Unenthusiast

My sister and I once took a ballet class together at BYU. A couple of weeks into the class, after we’d memorized all the positions and practiced our plies and tendues and arabesques, the teacher asked us to dance one at a time across the room so she could evaluate our progress. I watched as, [...]

The Technophile and the Technophobe Go to Church

I downloaded the Gospel Library onto my phone just last week. The kids had taken my scriptures out of the church bag right before we left (probably to make room for more obscene amounts of crayons) and I was left without the standard works. I dislike not having my scriptures with me. I like to [...]

One in Thine Hand?

One in Thine Hand? I’m happy to be studying the New Testament again in Sunday School. I grew up on its cadences and witness. It remains my favorite of the canon. It’s the volume through which I came to know Christ, to begin to grasp the Atonement and through whose principles – along with the [...]

Tiger Mothers, Mormon Mommy Bloggers, and Happiness

By now, I’m pretty sure most of you have read both the infuriating/fascinating Tiger Mother article as well as the fascinating/infuriating Mormon Mommy Blogger article that have been making the rounds over the past couple of weeks. (If you haven’t read them yet, I’m left to assume that you’re too busy berating your children into [...]

I read a men’s magazine today

And it brought out my feminist ire (if you can call it that. Mostly, I just got bugged, but “feminist ire” sounds better). Not for the reasons you might think, though. I was offended because it was funny.

To Not Have Sinned

I plead with you, my brothers and sisters, my young friends and my older friends, avoid transgression! The idea that one is better off after one has sinned and repented is a devilish lie of the adversary. Elder Dallin H. Oaks, “Sin and Suffering,” BYU Speeches, Aug. 5, 1990 She was our guest speaker in [...]

Top 10 Books of 2010

A while ago I was tagged on Facebook to list my top ten books read in 2010. I didn’t answer, because 1-it was December and I couldn’t think clearly, and 2-while I read a lot, I usually forget what I read (I know. I should be on Goodreads. Or do a book review blog. But [...]

Gay and/or Mormon: A Storyteller’s Perspective

Jonathan Langford (www.langfordwriter.com) is a freelance writer and editor who lives in western Wisconsin. His first novel, No Going Back, a 2009 Whitney Award finalist for best general fiction by an LDS author, describes a Mormon teenage boy’s struggle to remain faithful despite his homosexual feelings. Langford is also coauthor of the Latter-day Saint Family [...]

When Eternal Marriage Isn’t

The basketball court lines on the church gymnasium floor encircled us, framing us in the wedding pictures. My new husband and I greeted well-wishers whose shoes clicked along glossy wood as they trod off to eat cheesecake.  This was the man I had chosen to share my bed with, have children with, weather sickness and [...]

Leaving an impression

I am so impressionable, if you touched me I would probably retain your fingerprint on my skin. I’m kidding, but barely. What I read, watch, listen to, & see really colors how I see the world. (This is probably true of everyone but I might have it to such a degree that the Victorians would [...]

Eating Oatmeal

I ate it for breakfast,  alone in the kitchen. It was gooey and warm, sweetened with lumps of brown sugar and thinning with milk. It made me want to write a poem–I can’t explain why. Instead I googled “poems about oatmeal,” found a hit and Galway Kinnell joined me for breakfast. Oatmeal – by Galway [...]

Faking It

My second semester in graduate school I found myself in a seminar on women’s rhetorics, taught by the professor who had trained me as a teaching assistant the semester before. I was starting to relax a little; I hadn’t failed any classes that first semester (as I had despairingly feared midway through the semester), and [...]

Is there a magic number?

A couple of weeks ago my visiting teachers came to over, and while they were friendly and chatty, it was evident that they were eager to get somewhere. “Are you visiting someone after me?” I asked. “We’re going to see if my baby will give up the goods,” Sister S said, elbowing her companion, who [...]

Smoothing Wrinkles

It was my first run into the desert since the boys were born. My worn-out Asics wobbled over the washboard road. Heart and lungs fought for equilibrium as I heaved the dry air and trudged a mild ascent. I needed some time alone – away from the people I loved most. My calves and quads [...]

New Years Dreams

I love to plan—events, birthdays, holidays, vacations, weekends. You name it and I like to plan it. Thanks to my penchant for planning, a new year, with its accompanying push for goal-setting and resolutions, is a fun time for me. I plan what I want to learn this year, what I want to accomplish, where [...]

If I say this is about food storage you won’t read it.

“We need a real firecracker for this calling,” My bishop said as I sat across the desk from him. “You’d be perfect. We’d like to call you as Ward Preparedness Specialist.” Huh? Since when does Ward Preparedness Specialist requires firecrackerish skills? I could only guess that the Bishop thinks of preparedness differently than I do. [...]

When Two is Too Many

Beneath the rubble of Christmas morning, I chanced upon a small dolly, cozily tucked up to his armpits in a red and green felt stocking. I could call the gesture motherly, but I knew better by the skew of his striped nightcap, and then, by the presence of foil-wrapped chocolate Santas still underneath his feet: [...]

all in a day’s work

I once had a roommate who bragged she had never done a day’s work in her life. Over Thanksgiving, while pondering my life list of all the things I’m grateful for, I realized one of the things I was most thankful for was work. Work conjures visceral love/hate responses. It shows off our strengths, reveals [...]

Living By the Rules

I don’t believe in New Year’s resolutions. Never have, never will. I do, of course, believe in self-improvement, accomplishing new things, and the like. But I have a different method. I set rules for myself. Rules that I do not break — ever. The secret for living by the rules is to make them specific [...]

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