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Recent Posts
- 61 Psaltery & Lyre: Kay Porter, “Mother Mold”
- Ride to Church in Hyderabad, India
- 60 Psaltery & Lyre: Jeremy Windham, “Goliath in Love”
- Flooding the Book of Mormon with the Book of Mormon
- Battle Hymn of My Mormon Mother
- A Celebration of Motherhood
- Motherhood Is Not the Essense of my Personhood
- 3 Little Gurus
- 59 Psaltery & Lyre: James A. Clark, “Elegy for a Stranger”
- [Mormon] Mother’s Prayer for Its Child
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Twelve Lunches Archive
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Encounters: I Wish I Was Still Young
She looked at me again and seemed almost surprised to find me there holding her hand. She thanked me for stopping to talk to her and turned to slowly push... -
Encounters: Collapsing Inside
Driving by the cemetery that day, I happened to look right and saw an older man with unkempt hair sitting on a bench outside a gravestone store across from the... -
Encounters: I Passed By
I was enjoying the beautiful evening as I crossed the Maeser quad, and I heard her before I saw her. I had to look around for the source of the... -
Election Week Musings
If we are supposed to be a Christian nation, as so many claim, let us behave today as Christ would. We are only as strong as our weakest link. Let... -
Sunday Takes a Mallet to My Head
Usually a very confident person, I avoided their eyes, smiled at their foreheads, and slunk behind the piano. The chorister introduced two visitors and announced that we would be singing... -
Chupacabra
Sometimes, in our pursuit of service, we are asked to do strange things. Today’s guest post from Terry chronicles one such act of service. One night on my mission, my... -
So You Think You Can Write LDS Newsroom Press Releases
There’s a little known LDS tradition that on Leap Day, ordinary members of the church can write fantasy press releases for the LDS newsroom. Here are some... -
A gift of bread or stones?
If a gift harms someone, is it really a gift? Can we tell the difference between bread and rocks, or do we need to read some parables again? -
Dog Heaven
. You know how we all imagine that ‘dog heaven’ will be a place where dogs get to do what dogs like, like ride in cars with their heads hanging... -
Can a Virtual Cupcake Make Me Fat?
The phrase “it takes a village” surfaces a deep longing for living in a time when I might have had a village. Nostalgic thoughts of sharing housework, childcare and my... -
Knock and it shall be opened….
I’ve always been intellectually supportive of the mission of Visiting Teaching. Actually making myself do it, or enjoy being on the receiving end- or ‘teachee,’ as it were- hasn’t... -
Roller Coaster
A year ago, I was living in a daze. I was spending most nights curled up against my 11 year old daughter’s back as she lay on her... -
Santa and I
The year I turned four or five, we drove to my grandparents in central Wisconsin for Christmas. Actually, we did this for most years of my early childhood- until I... -
Prodigal
Last week, at a familiar intersection, the sign a man held up said, “It doesn’t take much to be kind.” -
I was thinking about my post from last year and thought it might be worth re-running this simple but profound message this year. Wishing all our readers an abundant Thanksgiving. ...
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Bonfire of the Vanities
The idea of a bonfire to rid ourselves of vanity sometimes has it’s appeal, especially on mornings when I’ve braided my 12 year old’s hair three different ways and she’s... -
The Feast of St. Francis
This year, our family observed General Conference by attending the local Episcopal church. -
Humane Day: Mormonism’s Forgotten Moral Conscience
As we continue Animal Week, today we have a guest post from Claudia. A few years ago, I came across a gem of a little book which I wish would... -
Family Ties
Where is the line between serving your family and loosing yourself in it? -
The Peace Project
The Peace Project is meant for peace – that’s it. While most of us disagree with Westboro’s actions, we are not a group standing in front of them, yelling counter... -
Moral Issues
Today on our local NPR affiliate, a local Stake Presidency member was interviewed about the roll-out of the “I’m a Mormon” PR campaign in our metro area. -
Favorites: Business Lunch
I asked a group with an empty chair if I could sit with them. A young man’s smile put me at ease and I settled in for lunch. I wasn’t... -
Assertiveness Training
I knew that even small acts of assertiveness would be important. Maybe it didn’t change the world but for that individual woman, it was world-changing. -
Finding Peace
Forgiveness. As babies and young children, we can’t help but forgive those that wrong us. We have no choice…. we are too dependent. But somehow along the path to adulthood... -
Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren . . .
Every once in a while, I meet someone who is just plain old good. Without guile. My friend Rebecca is one of those people. And so are her kids. Rebecca... -
The Wish Tree
I had my five year old daughter with me and I was a bit disappointed that I couldn’t get her very interested in the bronzes. Then we turned the... -
Crash Test
The thought of any inexperienced driver in charge of a 4,000 pound machine makes me very nervous, but anticipating my own flesh-and-blood inexperienced driver sends me almost into a panic. -
“The 2011 OB Drink Give-away”
I’ve spent almost all my 38 years in Texas or Louisiana, so I’ve weathered some bad summers. The summer of 2011, however, has re-defined “bad summer.” In our area, the... -
Window to Utopia
What would heaven be like, for a teenager? -
The Nursery Window
“Long ago,” he said, “I thought like you that my mother would always keep the window open for me, so I stayed away for moons and moons and moons, and... -
We Are Pioneers
As I was telling my Kindergartner earlier this month that we’re all pioneers in some way. Whenever we stand up for what we believe in or do something because we... -
The Gluttonous Baby
For as long as humans have made objects, there have been baby dolls. It’s an almost universal phenomenon that young children play with dolls. Especially if they have younger siblings... -
Operation Stop Arm
My neighbor Sheri and I watched motorists pass our children’s school bus for years. We took video, called the police, reported tag numbers, complained to the public school department of... -
Needing it Now and the Eye of the Storm
As I watched from my TV with a newborn baby, I was physically ill at the sight of those not able to escape New Orleans as the ravaging effects of... -
Joining the Jesus Freaks
Do we believe, deep down, that the poor are that way because God wants them to be? -
Proxy Work
As a lone-parent, five-child family on welfare, we were hardly the ideal Mormon family. -
No Soup For You!
I recently read this article in the Orlando Sentinel reporting on a third round of arrests of activists arrested for violating an ordinance prohibiting the sharing of food with large... -
The Parable of the Potato Soup
Once upon a time, a woman in our ward (=church congregation) had a baby. In typical fashion, the women at church mobilized and quickly sent around a list for people... -
Moneybags
Money Memory #1: A few years ago I found $20 in an old canvas purse. I should note that it was my old purse and I had forgotten about the... -
You Can Recognize Them by Their Hand-Carved Daggers…
I love memoirs. And I love Tina Fey. So I was just salivating as my friends and co-bloggers raved about Bossypants when it came out. Finally, on Mother’s Day, I... -
Angels with Power Tools
When you hear the words “Compassionate Service” what comes to mind? This is like one of those word association games- just go with your gut feeling. Macaroni and cheese? Sign... -
Park it!
Children can only write so many letters to full-time missionaries. Or out-of-state family members. They can only color so many pictures destined for the walls of the local hospital. They... -
Twelfth Lunch
November 11th, 2010 I gave away the last lunch (somehow, the story of the eleventh lunch was never recorded and has been lost to the mists of time). It had... -
Emergency: Lunches 9 and 10
On a drizzly day last fall, at the familiar corner near the Carter Center where I gave away the very first lunch, lunches #9 and #10 found homes with two... -
Find Your Tribe
Over a decade ago I read this article in Mothering Magazine about a woman who is far from family and friends and meets up with another woman to share household... -
Kids and Calamities
I watched the Twin Towers fall on TV, my oldest child safely ensconced in her kindergarten class. My toddler was playing with blocks nearby…. building towers and knocking them down. ... -
Parallel Journeys
By Claudia On my personal blog, I am known as “The Faithful Dissident.” For the past three years, I’ve been hiding behind that alias. Afraid of what, I’m not exactly... -
“Do you want to end up living under a bridge?”
This is, reportedly, what my daughter’s second grade teacher asked her class during a fit of frustration over their less-than-enthusiastic preparation for the looming standardized testing. Several other parents and... -
Talents: Addition and Multiplication
This is a guest post from a favorite reader and commenter, Corktree. It may sound simplistic (or just serving of my purpose), but I’ve always read the parable of the... -
Celebrating the Man As Well As His Cause
A guest post from a reader, Debra. Names matter. They do. My life experience has taught me this. Names are important as they are references – signs — that direct...
