Long Live Sister O!
We’re coming up (in August) on the tenth anniversary of the death of Chieko Okazaki. She served as first counselor in the church’s General Relief Society Presidency from 1990 to 1997, and died in...
View ArticleProse Contest Winner
Featured image: Linda Hoffman Kimball’s, “Zion’s Bright Trio” First Place Prose Life After Death by Christy Crowe Hughes It should have been a dream come true, and in a way it was. Three years...
View ArticleYin and Yang and Valentine’s Day
Yin Yang and Valentine’s Day Recently I have felt the pull of both the good and the bad, the beautiful and the horrific, the yin and yang of life. On January 23rd my wonderful, vibrant, full-of-life...
View ArticleThe Ties That Bind
A few years ago I became laser-focused on learning about sound and its connection to emotional and physical healing. When I first picked up the frame drum, I knew it was the instrument for me. The...
View ArticleGrief and Good Friday: A Unified Day of Fasting and Prayer
For centuries believing Christians have honored Good Friday – the day of Christ’s crucifixion and redemptive death – as a day of fasting and prayer. This year, President Russell M. Nelson of the Church...
View ArticleEnd at Start, Light with Dark, Holiday or Ho Hum, Go and Come
The holiday season can be joyous, but it can also be jarring. Voices raise in harmonic “alleluias” or in discordant disagreements. Thoughtful, generous giving can elevate giver and receiver, but...
View ArticleTaking the Name of God in Vain?
I was brought up to never, ever “take the Lord’s name in vain.” As a kid growing up among peers with colorful language, my milquetoast exclamations made me feel like a Puritan. Oh my gosh. Dang it....
View ArticleGlass Grapes & Grieving
As a convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in my college years in New England, I learned the craft of creating apple dolls just like the kind sold in the gift shop at Sturbridge...
View ArticleBreaking the Silence: Surviving Incest
I am a sexual abuse and incest survivor. My abuser was my best friend. She was my sister. A few years ago when the #metoo movement began, I thought, So many women I know have suffered sexual abuse:...
View ArticleBest Gift
I’d like to tell you the story of the best Christmas present I ever received. It does not involve a doll, or shoes, or a new dress, or any other tropes from Christmas songs and stories. Not that...
View ArticleA Living Sacrifice by Kathryn Lynard
I SHIFTED MY WEIGHT on the pew and sighed as the sacrament meeting speaker stood to begin his talk. Seven months pregnant, I was swollen and sore, big-bellied, and exhausted from the constant demands...
View ArticleSundays Away
When I Was a Child Growing up, I went to church weekly except during bouts of strep throat or flu. Even during rare family vacation travels, we packed Sunday clothes and shoes no matter our...
View ArticleThe Errand of Angels
Months before my Mom passed away, I sat on the couch next to her and recorded her voice. I captured her thoughts, her laughter, and her gratitude for each of my siblings and my Dad. Friends, who had...
View ArticleEaster Admission: Gratitude, Grief, and Ambivalence
Easter. The word tugs images and emotions from every layer of my memories. I encounter some stitched into the outer surfaces and unfold them with ease. Others, almost forgotten, require more effort to...
View ArticleThis Is Your Task. You Are Called To It
It happened while I was doing my physical therapist-prescribed workout in front of the TV. That’s when God spoke to me. I’m not much of a TV-watcher, except for the occasional Masterpiece series, which...
View ArticleWhen Your Kids “Stray”
I joined the LDS Church as a teenager and was utterly jubilant to find a church home that deepened my Christian faith walk in ways I’d only longed for till then. I come from a long line of deeply...
View ArticleWhat to Say on Memorial Day
Memorial Day is not about taking advantage of retailers’ discount promotions or partying over the three-day weekend. Memorial Day means taking time to remember the departed who died while serving the...
View ArticleDearly (Unexpected) Departed
I didn’t know you had died. I found out on my birthday of all days, while I was sucking chocolate icing from my teeth and revelling in the grace and sass of turning forty. I loved you Michael. Loved...
View ArticleNatalie
“Natalie is quickly slipping away.” I read this text on my phone as I sat in the boardroom at work, conducting a meeting with a department supervisor and several leads. As I attempted to talk, to...
View ArticleSeasons of Grief
Seasons of Grief Summer binds my scar of ache with an embrace of shade. I pull it like a shroud over my head to veil my soundless lips counting each breath. Autumn...
View Article![Cloonee, Yandel & ATLAC – Movimiento – Single [iTunes Plus M4A]](http://i.imgur.com/Q8tO40p.jpeg)
