Segullah

Mormon women blogging about the peculiar and the treasured

2011 Whitney Awards– Final Thoughts

It’s been a little more than two months, and we’ve been hard at work reading the finalists for the 2011 Whitney Awards, which honors novels written by LDS authors. Angela, Emily M, Jessie, Melonie, Rosalyn, and I have spent the last couple of months discovering new voices, cheering for old favorites, and occasionally wishing we [...]

Dare to Not Compare

 Today’s guest post is from Emily Ogilvie Sharp. When asked to tell us about herself, Emily said:  I graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in Elementary Education.  I currently use that knowledge as my husband and I raise two daughters, ages 2 and 4. I spend my days playing dolls and dress-ups, but am looking forward [...]

What’s in a Name?

I sat in the hospital waiting room reading celebrity magazines, a guilty pleasure I rarely indulge in. My husband was in an operating room in Boston having a pin installed in his hand to help heal a fractured bone. In the great scheme of things, it wasn’t too big a deal. Another family walked in [...]

Childish Things

Before my son was born, I pictured him cuddling up with a soft blanket or stuffed animal, much like Linus from Peanuts, or Kevin Henkes’ charming Owen. I certainly wasn’t prepared for or expecting the reality, which was that my son formed no physical attachments for the first eighteen months of his life. That is, [...]

Chasing down the ice cream man

A few weeks ago my son (who is 10) exploded into the house after he’d been playing at a neighbor’s house. He was hot, sweaty, and angry. I braced myself for a report of some heinous act perpetuated by his friends, or an account of a tragic injury. Instead, he just yelled, “The ice cream [...]

Love and Testimony

After reading Melissa M.’s post last month about patriarchal blessings, I decided to pull mine out and give it a read. It had been more than a while. And toward the end, I had one of those quintessential moments where a few words stood out in a new way—a phrase stating that I would be [...]

Women and the Hermeneutic of Generosity

“Hermeneutic” (I had to look it up, too) is a ten-cent word meaning interpretation. The phrase “hermeneutic of generosity” comes from the book Mountains Beyond Mountains, about Dr. Paul Farmer, who brought health care to Haiti with his Partners in Health organization. And here is what Dr. Farmer means: when someone tells you something, you [...]

Wedding Demons

Today’s guest post is from Samantha Strong Murphey, who aspires to be the next J.K. Rowling, but so far, every time she sits down to write her masterpiece, it comes out as a masked version of Harry Potter. Until an original idea strikes, she’ll continue working as a freelance journalist, copy editor and blogger. She [...]

Why I write

I’m applying for a job that I think I really want. This school in Providence needs English teachers to teach arts integrated curriculum, which means they want people to use music, drama, film, and dance to teach language arts content. I have to write essays to convince the principal that I’m worth hiring. Talking about [...]

Singing forward

I grew up lullaby rich.  My mom, a harpist, sometimes fit in her practicing time after our bedtime and on those lucky nights we fell asleep to impossibly lovely sounds.  There were also lullabies sung from beside the bed or from the doorway, the hall light flooding around my parents’ silhouettes. My dad’s specialty was [...]

A Conversation: On Being a Woman, part 2

“Did you have a boyfriend in high school, Sister Cruz?” I froze. I can put on a smile, tell a lie that makes me look perfect or — be honest. She looks at me in anticipation. “Yeah, I did,” I say with hesitation. “I had my first boyfriend when I was 15. And some more [...]

Being Spared

Early afternoon, sitting at the computer writing and paying bills, I was interrupted by the house alarm beeping. Tornado warning in effect until 2 PM. Then the sirens outside. A text from a relative. Tornado headed toward west Arlington. Please tell me you are taking cover. I click on the tv to hear the weather [...]

Beautiful Baby

I walked into Sears last week to return a pair of sneakers, my baby strapped to my chest in an Ergo carrier. As we waited to be helped, Rose started to fuss, and pretty soon the older lady behind me in line was peeking over my shoulder. “Can I see the baby?” I tried to [...]

Christ the Lord is Risen Today

Today’s guest post is from Amira, who lives in Kyrgyzstan and blogs at The Golden Road to Samarqand. I climbed over stones on the roof of the church and down a ladder to a railing overlooking the main courtyard of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. It was Orthodox Maundy Thursday, the Holy [...]

Making a Difference, Being Remembered

I have always wanted to make a difference. Sometimes this desire has had its roots in pride and selfishness; other times it has been purely altruistic. Sometimes it has led me to do desperate things. For example, in the first few months after the birth of my second child, it seemed that all I did [...]

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