Segullah

Mormon women blogging about the peculiar and the treasured

A Woman, but Never a Young One

I know this may be tempting the fates, but I have never yet served in the Young Women’s program. When I joined the church in college in Massachusetts, I joined a university ward that only had adult programs. I had all manner of wonderful role models – male and especially female. I had mentors of [...]

Dream On

Though it’s been decades since I graduated from college, every couple of months or so I have the same dream: It’s finals week, and I suddenly discover there’s a class I’m registered for (usually some kind of science class) that I forgot to attend all semester long. I have the textbook—a big one—but there’s no [...]

Buyer Be Noir

Buyer Be Noir By Linda Hoffman Kimball   It was a dark and stormy afternoon. The Massachusetts air hung low and dense, tinged with the scent of the sea and punctuated occasionally by the brutal screams of sea gulls. Thunder rolled and the wipers beat, beat, beat their ominous tattoo on my rental car’s windshield. [...]

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 [...]

My Drabbest Self

Last week for Mutual (if it’s still called that) I was asked to show up at the local mall disguised somehow. The idea was that the kids would go on a scavenger hunt for ward members. I pondered my costume choices and decided to go with “Frumpy and Plain Middle-Aged Woman”. Three towels were wrapped [...]

Judge Not–Or Should We?

Like many of you who were able to attend or watch the general Relief Society meeting last Saturday night, I loved listening to President Monson speak on charity at the close of the meeting. His remarks were loving, wise, and inspired. “Do [our] differences tempt us to judge one another?” asked President Monson. “Can we [...]

Double Consciousness

As a graduate student, I spent some time pouring over old microfiche records of The Woman’s Exponent (incidentally one of the first lasting magazines published by women for women in the American West) and other works by and about early Mormon women. Repeatedly, I was struck by these women’s firm insistence in their own dignity, [...]

The Privilege of Being a Mormon Woman

This post is mistitled. It should read The Privilege of Being a Middle Class (American-Mormon) Married Woman. I admit that up front. We marry. We have a baby. We breastfeed them and change diapers. We potty train them and squish play dough. Then we walk them to school, and drive them to lessons. We usually [...]

What happens when my ADD of housecleaning spreads to writing

What you almost got from me today: How we come to terms with our own not-enoughness. What it feels like to be a Republican deep in the heart of Utah County fearlessly campaigning for a Democrat in the upcoming election. Funny things I observe or overhear while serving in my new calling in the Primary. [...]

Segullah Writers’ Retreat Recap

Were you at the Segullah Writers’ Retreat?  I was.  Well, if you weren’t able to make it, I thought I’d fill you in on how it was… and it was, in a word, amazing.  It was a perfect Saturday, filled with delightful company and writing inspiration, not to mention great food. Truly, every person I talked [...]

A Natural Woman

I’m glad I’m a woman. I’m glad I’m a wife. I’m glad I’m a mother. I’m glad I’m a Mormon. In fact, my Mormon-woman-wife-and-motherness is the core of my personal identity, and I recognize it as the source of my greatest blessings and opportunities for growth in this life. I am not, however, a perfect [...]

A Catalog of Hopes and Sins

Some things I hope are true: 1. That I will always have my sense of humor. 2. That when I visit America, my Australian accent will be happily accepted and understood. 3. That my divorce will help my sons have stronger marriages. Divorce messes with your head. I have spent a depressing chunk of the [...]

Sisterly Love

When I was a little girl I thought one of the happiest sounds I’d ever heard was my mother laughing with her six sisters. They’d stand around my grandmother’s kitchen, washing the dishes and putting away the Christmas dinner leftovers, laughing so loudly they sounded like the kookaburras that cackled outside my window every morning. [...]

I Learned the Truth at Seventeen

Marla is a Utah native and a professional writer and editor. She is just weeks away (fingers crossed) from completing a master’s degree in English. She loves running, biking, reading, writing, and lurking on the Segullah blog. She blogs at mindofmarla.blogspot.com. I went to the Victorian exhibit at the BYU Museum of Art a few [...]

Weekday sisterhood and Relief Society meetings

My first day as a Relief Society sister was my first Sunday after moving away to college. Where earlier that week I had been excited and hopeful, after five days away, I was now lonely and sad. The opening hymn of Relief Society was one I’d never heard before (and have since heard oh so [...]

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