Vast tragedy makes me feel numb. I have a good friend who weeps over wars and inhumanity elsewhere. But I feel… numb, unable to wrap my head and heart around so much pain. Or, if I’m not numb, I watch the news and feel like a voyeur. The camera lingers on a woman [...]

“My mother wants to make us Christmas stockings,” my husband told me, that first autumn of our marriage. “For your birthday.”
I bristled. I had plans for our Christmas stockings. I wanted big flannel ones with snowmen and maybe blanket stitching. I had seen them in Target. They were cute. It felt intrusive to me to [...]

It’s that time of year again–time to put the final polish on your essays and poetry for our annual writing contest. In past years when posting about our contest, I have asked if anyone has questions. And… no one ever does. I don’t know if that’s because it’s pretty straightforward, or if people are [...]

I stand in warrior one, basic yoga, my back foot flattened, my arms lifted, fingers splayed.
“Engage the hands,” my teacher says. “Deepen the bend in your front knee. See how far down you can come.”
I engage my hands, deepen the bend. “Now hold,” she says. “We’re going to be here for a while.”
So I hold, [...]

In my first singles ward, our bishopric held a special retreat to teach new ward members about being an active part of an adult ward. Brother Thompson used an analogy I have never forgotten. “When you’re at a potluck dinner,” he said, “the person who is assigned to bring the roast beef is someone who [...]

Treat yourself to some time reading Segullah: Gifts of the Spirit. It’s been available in print for a while, and thanks to Johnna, our wonderful webmaster, it’s also available online. It’s always hard for me to choose favorite pieces to highlight, but here are just a few that are worth your attention:

Dreams as Gifts of [...]

The little boy who sits next to my first grader daughter has been bugging her. “He calls me a baby,” she said. “He says I’m just a little cry-baby. In the lunch line, every day.”
“People who make fun of other people are usually insecure themselves,” I said. A little too intensely, and it came [...]

About halfway through my mission, my zone leader and his companion accompanied us on a day of missionary work. I always felt awkward about this, in part because it looked like a double date, and in part because I felt like everything I did was being judged and evaluated. And I always had [...]

I do my best visiting teaching when I visit someone who is within five years of my own age. Or someone who’s younger than me. But right now I visit two wonderful women who are twenty and thirty years older than me, and I feel like–I know–that I’m not that great at meeting [...]

If you have not yet read or listened to this talk by Elder Bednar, I highly recommend it. He locates the question of internet usage and screen time within the framework of the Plan of Salvation. This is one of my favorite ways to teach, as I talked about in this post a while [...]

I am in love with this poem by Darlene Young:
Inheritance
I got your jewelry, a couple of scarves, and an old dress
I claimed just because it looked like you.
But familiar though the earrings are, the scarf, the dress,
the emerald pin, no matter how I squint into the past
I can’t make out your face and now [...]

I am not a detail person. I don’t paint my toenails often. I don’t pull all the weeds. I rarely dust. I’m blind to the nuances that detail people take for granted: hospital corners on beds, ironed linens. Or, if I notice the nuances, I feel irritable. Surely that [...]

In the spirit of all those Oscar articles right before the big night, I’d like to offer a few Whitney Award predictions. I had a great time being on the Whitney Academy this year. I have read all the finalists, and I was tickled to discover some fabulous writing that I would not [...]

I joined Facebook a few weeks ago. It was a panicky feeling, reminiscent of junior high, when I looked over at the “friend” list and saw zero. Zero friends! I humbly petitioned my Segullah friends to please be my Facebook friends too. And then I asked my brothers and sisters. And their [...]

Tune in to KSL tomorrow morning at 8 A.M. to hear Carole Mikita interview our brilliant editor-in-chief, Kathryn Soper. I’m excited to hear this; Kathy has great wisdom and a great sense of humor. I will be tuning in!