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Bonnie

By Alayna Beck

I keep a pinecone on my desk. Its appearance is average in every way—brown, sharp, rotund. It’s scented like a Christmas Costco candle, pungent like a curled cinnamon stick up your nose. I stole it from the flower arrangement on my grandmother’s casket. How did they know? How did the funeral directors know my grandmother …

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In the Pew

By Lorraine Jeffery

My granddaughter slumpsin resignation.There’s a pout on that angelicface and the chapelis too warm. Her fine,blond hair sticks to hercheek and I quietlystroke it away whilethe speaker drones onabout the prophet Samuel,another apparently angelicchild.Macie glances at her fellowsufferer. Michael is tryinghard to be quiet and still,but he shifts uncomfortably,glances at the clock.A whole long hour—a …

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Even Here, Love Abides (1st Place Creative Nonfiction)

By Allyson Smith

Walking back into the cancer center for the first infusion feels both familiar and surreal. I cannot believe this is happening again; this was always going to happen again. I am picking up right where I left off. My 18-month hiatus should have been permanent. Instead, this cancer has not only returned, but has spread …

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Pandemic Nativity

By Heather Harris-Bergevin

Mary was bossy this year. Joseph tended towander a bit, so she steered him to the cradle.Part way through, the babydoll, being too wiggly,came unwrapped. She fixed it carefully, our Jesus,wrapped in wadded-up clothes, like in the Bible.Last year’s baby Jesus was, this year, a sheep,wooly and smiling with few teeth, knowinghe is important, not …

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Lessons from the Fall

By Linda Hoffman Kimball

, you need to check them out here!

It’s been 4 weeks since I fell off an e-bike and broke my wrist. I believe the ER doctor, looking at the x-ray, used the words “crumbled parts”. He gave me some kind of nerve block, waited for it to take effect, then hoisted my right forearm arm, and squished it like playdough to manipulate the parts back (more or less) to their intended places.

With a prescription for serious pain meds, a splint, a sling, and a yellow foam contraption to protect my arm, my chauffeur/husband drove us back home.

Yes, this is my right wrist attached (less reliably right now) to my right (dominant) hand. As a writer, visual artist, and quilter, I have found putting those delights away for a season very challenging.

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Praying Not to Shrink

By Linda Hoffman Kimball

We have our son and his family living with us during these pandemic days. Their little 3-year-old son Nelson and his 9-month-old brother Linden are my daily buddies. Linden can now scooch in a commando crawl and reach just about any destination he sets off for. Nelson is gobbling up vocabulary and spitting words out with panache. After a recent rhyming fest he announced “I am  prolific with poetry.”

Watch out world.

Nelson also has occasion to say the blessings on the food at our communal meals. He has a little intro he always uses: “Heavenly Father, thank you for blessings. Thank you for God….”

Even his parents aren’t sure where he came up with that. It’s pretty all encompassing, isn’t it? It reminds me of a prayer Mr. Rogers (of “Neighborhood” fame) taught folks. “It’s easy,” he said. “Just three little words: “Thank you, God.”

Right now our family has another urgent reason to pray.

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Talking “Why” & Sitting in Paradoxes: An Interview with Speaker & Author, Ganel-Lyn Condie

By Sherilyn Stevenson

At Segullah, we pride ourselves on highlighting women relevant to Mormon letters. This quarter’s featured woman, Ganel-Lyn Condie, writes in a genre rarely featured in literary magazines, and yet, her work adds to the discourse in the Church today. As a best-selling, self-help writer and public speaker of “real” topics, Ganel-Lyn impacts discussion surrounding contemporary …

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Crystal Despain – Artist’s Statement

Crystal Despain reaches into a canvas with the intention of drawing out life. Her painting process is all about “feeling around the edges of her subjects” until what she is searching for reveals itself. She works to capture a “life spark” through a painting mindset that on the one hand holds firmly to technical performance, …

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A Scar Inventory

By Rachel Rueckert

Yesterday I visited a good friend. She placed her freshly bathed ten-month-old baby on the couch next to me. I am not a baby person, but this baby enchanted me—the leg rolls bunched under his diaper, the way he reached his greedy fingers out for everything, the startled look in his azure eyes when he …

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Give Us This Day Our Daily Poem

By Hildie Westenhaver

Be Ye Therefore by Heather Bergevin   She says in class, well at least in the resurrection we won’t have to worry about being fat, as if fat was the worst, most corrupted Sin of seven (as if it is sin at all, and fully within our realm of control.) We use these magical thoughts, …

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Secret Link