Segullah

Mormon women blogging about the peculiar and the treasured

The Turning

January is such a hard month for so many people. I wanted to find something light and entertaining to say, something else, but instead this topic tugs and nudges at me today. About suffering they were never wrong, The Old Masters; how well they understood Its human position; how it takes place While someone else [...]

Losing it: Exhibit A

I admit it. December is a month that finds me particularly scattered, more so than usual. In some ways I love the bustle and bounty. Other times I reach my limit of juggling the holiday doings on top of the usual activities of life. Even when we resolve to keep it simple, we still have [...]

Let it be

I brought the postcard of this painting home from the Musee D’Orsay. It sits on the shelf above my desk and my heart pings a little every time I look at it. According to my rusty college French, the title translates to something like The Disciples Peter and John Rush to the Tomb on the Morning [...]

Fifth Business

“Those roles which, being neither those of hero nor Heroine, Confidante nor Villain, but which were none the less essential to bring about the Recognition or the denouement were called the Fifth Business in drama and Opera companies organized according to the old style; the player who acted these parts was often referred to as [...]

Climbs and descents

I’ve been thinking of this ever since I read it a few weeks ago: You cannot stay on the summit forever; you have to come down again. So why bother in the first place? Just this: What is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above. One climbs, [...]

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 [...]

Looking up

See that woman in the middle? The one alone With the white hat and broom Head down, sweeping Or digging, maybe. That has been me. Focused on the depth of snow in front of me And my need to dig out. Oblivious To the boisterous gathering over there And to the snow-stuck wagon behind me, [...]

Advanced warning system

When I look back at pivotal events in my life, I am often retrospectively aware of the blessings of advanced warning, little nudges from a loving God who knows I do not handle surprise well. This happened recently when my husband and I both had promptings in advance of his eventual call as bishop. I [...]

Of all people

With the recent reports about the devastating effects of bullying, my thoughts have turned to an experience my daughter has struggled with recently: running interference between John*, a non-LDS high school friend of hers, and Doug and Carl*, two LDS boys in our stake who have been harassing him. The three boys only know each [...]

Finding space

I have vivid memories of a couple of secret, magical places of my childhood. I can conjure the smell of the earthiness in the old, empty wooden hut tucked into the lilacs surrounding our backyard. I remember the vast, shady real estate between the rows of sheets hanging on the line where whole dynasties were [...]

Passing the Bridge of Sighs

Many years ago, when our marriage had that just-out-of-the-box shine, my husband (G) and I lived in England for a summer. We visited Cambridge and decided to try punting on the river Cam. (Punting, as you probably know, involves steering a long skinny boat with a long skinny pole while standing balanced in the back, [...]

Leaving notes

Recently I chanced upon an article about a dad who has written daily letters to his two children. Robert Guest has been getting up at dawn every school day for the past 15 years to write a note to each of his two children, resulting in thousands of notes later collected from lunchboxes and pockets. [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Good Graciousness

The shutters and doors of the Radley home were closed on Sundays, another thing alien to Maycomb’s ways: closed doors meant illness and cold weather only. Of all days Sunday was the day for formal afternoon visiting: ladies wore corsets, men wore coats, children wore shoes.  But to climb the Radley front steps and call, [...]

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