Segullah

Mormon women blogging about the peculiar and the treasured

Putting some heart in it

I am a personal person. I REALLY like personal things. I like giving little bits of myself to other people, and I love when other people give parts of themselves to me. I love things that are homemade. This takes on a lot of forms. I have one friend who brings me after-church treats. As [...]

The Gift of Receiving

We are thick in the season of giving. Retail merriment may jing-jing-jangle our nerves, but many of us bask in thinking about our giftees and what might bring them joy. This is progress from our less-enlightened “gimme” days. Wonderful! We are learning to be good gift givers. The flip side of this is that this [...]

Thanks(giving) for the Memories

On a recent flight, my daughter sat next to an actress affiliated with a Chicago based comedy troupe. The actress needed some ideas for an upcoming Thanksgiving sketch routine and asked my daughter if she had any funny family holiday meal stories. The story my daughter shared was one my husband and I have no [...]

What He Sees

I love people watching and have convinced myself that I’m a pro: my sunglasses hiding the direction of my gaze or the incognito peering from behind the pages of an uninteresting library find. Inevitably the words hold little sway to the treasures of humanity beyond the pages and the assurance of real, live social graces [...]

Justice and Mercy Walk into a Bar

Justice and Mercy walk into a bar. Justice overhears a customer order “another Shirley Temple, please.” Barkeep reminds the customer that he hasn’t paid for his last two yet. Justice grabs the customer by the collar, yells, “You can’t pay your bill? You’re outta here!” and kicks him out the door.

1st Estate, 2nd Estate, Real Estate?

  We kept our First Estate. Presumably we’re keeping our Second Estate. But have you ever tried to offload Real Estate? For me selling our house in Massachusetts was an opportunity for friendship, interfaith bridging, and an exploration of the tokens and tchotchkes of our religions.

State of Bliss

I’m feeling dizzy these days. My husband and I divide our time into seasons and spend winters and summers in Utah and springs and falls in Illinois. For the past three weeks, however, I’ve been in Boston. I just got back to Illinois last night and spent the morning at the temple for my Friday [...]

Everyone Loves A Love Story

I had several ideas for this post. Intriguing, amusing, thoughtful ideas, all jostling for space and attention in my head, slyly shoving each other while smiling broadly at the camera, vying to be chosen as the post winner. I spent last week drafting the piece, mental wheels spinning as I slalomed the forklift through my [...]

An Inner-Height Love Story

Michelle Larson is:  wife, mom to 5, future adopted mom to a child from Ethiopia (waiting for referral), director of a non-profit called Grow.Learn.Give., sister of twenty-six (counting in-laws), daughter to four, teacher of lots of church kids, runner- skier- dancer- writer for herself, health teacher to anyone that will listen, chaeuffer and slave to [...]

Season’s Greetings – yikes!

Every year about this time I feel the pressure build. What am I going to do for The Family Christmas Letter? There are a lot of styles of family Christmas letters. One of them is Brag Rags. Of course we enjoy the highlights of our friends’ years. It’s the kind where the “typical accomplishments” involve [...]

I am Not a Mother

Today’s guest post is by Reachel Bagley. After searching for their children for over 5 years, Reachel and her husband finally found their daughter Coco through adoption.  They will be adding a son to their clan this December.  She encourages women everywhere to continue searching for those in need of mothers everywhere.  When not writing [...]

I knew it was coming; I just didn’t expect it would hurt.

Well, I’m understanding Sharlee’s fabulous essay (the title essay in Segullah’s latest, Dance With Them) a little more now. I got the first “you’re standing too close” attitude from my teenager today. I had been braced for it—really, I swear!—but it still blindsided me somehow. He explained that though he enjoys my coming to his [...]

A Moment of Clarity

Heather Olson Beal is guest posting for this week’s UP CLOSE – MAKING MARRIAGE WORK piece.  She is a mom of three kids who sometimes drive her nuts despite being genuinely great.  She lives in deep east Texas and is happy to finally be a professor and no longer a student!  She has a BA in Spanish from [...]

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, [...]

Puddles of Blossoms

With great pleasure we bring you this post by Deja Earley to kick-off our June UP CLOSE theme of Marriage MAKING IT WORK.  Deja lives outside Boston with her husband and three cats.  Her poetry and nonfiction have appeared or are forthcoming in places like Arts and Letters, Borderlands, and Poet Lore. She is poetry [...]

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