Segullah

Mormon women blogging about the peculiar and the treasured

The Sustain Pedal

I play the piano. Not well. But well enough to play the hymns impromptu or accompany if I have some advance notice. (Like several weeks. Okay, maybe a month.) When I was a senior in high school, my grandmother asked me to accompany our entire extended family (cousins, aunts, uncles) in singing a special musical [...]

To Be Civilized

In a scripture class, taught and attended by women in my stake, I was recently asked to read a story written by Paul Sullivan, published in the Reader’s Digest in 1996, about the Cellist of Sarajevo. The setting was Bosnia, 1992, two months into the Bosnian war that killed over 100,000 people and proved to [...]

The Battle in our Brains

Several months ago I attended the Mormon Women Project Salon Event, at which I heard Tina Peterson speak. The title for her breakout session was, “Becoming a Deliberate Student of the Gospel.” Tina has a degree in Near Eastern Studies and has studied the Old and New Testament in their original languages from multiple sources [...]

Secret Alms

The last Sunday in November, a woman, new to our ward, shared this story in our sacrament meeting. I retell it with her permission. When she was eight years old, her single mother (age thirty) moved their young family from California to Salt Lake City. It was late autumn and the weatherman was predicting a [...]

Layers

She walked onto the stage wearing layers. How many I wasn’t sure. A long-sleeved t-shirt stretched the length of her arms. Cotton rippled round her waist, hinting of more beneath, and a pair of khaki pants hung loose on her hips. All eyes were on her, as she began to move. I’ve seen Jill dance [...]

A Man to Remember

This morning, in a Salt Lake City chapel, seats will overflow with individuals who have come to remember a great man – a man “of strong faith and a firm mind in every form of godliness” (Moroni 7: 30). Elder Marion D. Hanks, emeritus general authority of the LDS Church, passed away last week at age [...]

Swim Lessons for Them or Me?

The pool is gleaming neon blue. I lift my sunglasses to wipe beads of sweat off the bridge of my nose.  A high-noon sun beats down on my thighs and the water flashes white with reflections and limbs as I squint against the light. It is ninety degrees outside, but I am shaking. My hands [...]

A Father’s Blessing

I sighed long as I looked out the window of my plane cresting above the Dulles airport. My husband and I had been married five years – most of which were spent living and working in Washington DC. It had been a difficult year. Months of failed fertility attempts, and a tenuous situation that developed [...]

Stuck Like Glue

I can’t recall what was said or why we had a “discussion.” I just remember it rattled me, and quick as lightning I was on the defensive. I huffed around, hot and bothered by a handful of tossed out words. I tugged on my running shoes and whisked out the door, hoping to run my [...]

Being True

We meet at the street corner in the black of morning and hit the pavement. Women, runners, friends. We talk about our children, our menstrual cycles, world and civic happenings, strained family relationships, the ups and downs of marriage, the anguish of a miscarriage. There are no facades. We huff and puff so much it’s [...]

The Great Wave

I have an entirely different post tapped out in Word, but after watching all the CNN footage of the 8.9-magnitude earthquake and the massive Tsunami that struck the coast of Japan, I don’t have eyes to look away. I don’t have the heart to write about anything else. My husband and I crowded around the [...]

He Neither Slumbers Nor Sleeps

Four years ago today, the Saturday before Valentine’s Day, our twin girls were born. Moments of that day have slipped in and out of my mind all week, like a soft and gentle stream, giving life to everything around me. Mostly, I have been warmed by the tender, subtle feeling of being known. The girls [...]

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 [...]

I Esteemed Him Not

“No thank you,” I said. The stranger in front of me was visibly emotional. His chin wrinkled and it looked like he might cry. A grown man, standing in my driveway, about to cry. He was dressed well enough and clean-shaven, but I kept my distance. I was cautious, even skeptical. He asked to wash [...]

Restoring Margin

WARNING: System Failure Ahead. If only a neon sign could drop down from the sky and flash these words in front of my face when it is obvious (to everyone except myself) I am heading towards shutdown. Since God rarely writes me notes in neon, I’ve been exploring the idea of margins and I have [...]

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