Segullah

Mormon women blogging about the peculiar and the treasured

In the Company of Angels

I’m almost done reading the Whitney finalists! Exclamation point because thirty books is a lot, and while I’ve enjoyed it, it will feel good to be done with the last one. Shelah and I are going to talk more about our favorites in a couple of weeks. You can also visit Shelah’s blog for her [...]

Whitney 2010 Nominees and Almost-Nominees

The finalists for the 2010 Whitney Awards were announced ten days ago. Congratulations to everyone! The Whitney Awards celebrate excellent writing by LDS authors, published both locally and nationally. Shelah and I will be reading and deciding on Segullah’s picks together–we will keep you posted. I have tried to read more fiction by LDS authors [...]

Haiti

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 sitting in [...]

The Noodle Angels

“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 [...]

Segullah Writing Contest Questions and Answers

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 intimidated [...]

Finding the Ease

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.” [...]

Workers of the Ward, Unite!

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 [...]

Segullah: Gifts of the Spirit

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 [...]

Dark Glass, Energy of Heart

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 [...]

Ask, Receive

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 that “I’m [...]

The Visiting Teaching Hierarchy

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 their needs. [...]

Things as They Really Are

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 ago. [...]

Inheritance

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 [...]

I’m not a detail person (except when I am)

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 level of perfection is unreasonable. Right? [...]

Whitney Award Predictions

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 have looked [...]

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