Segullah Journal

Introducing Segullah, Part I And Eve . . . was glad, saying: Were it not for our transgression, we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient. (Moses 5:11) I OFTEN PRAY WHILE DRIVING. Usually I’m discreet [...]

Introducing Segullah, Part II HERE’S A TRUE STORY: Two summers ago I was invited to go to lunch with a female professor who was visiting BYU. Though not LDS, she studies nineteenth-century Mormon women’s poetry, so she was here to give a lecture. Four of us ended up eating at the Museum of Art Café (you [...]

Introducing Segullah, Part III THE SOUND OF THE TELEPHONE awakened me from a sound sleep. My husband leaned over the nightstand to answer. Suddenly on edge, I mentally sorted the possible reasons for a phone call so early in the morning. Had there been an injury or an illness in the family? An emergency at Don’s [...]

MY KIDS AND I WERE VISITING MY MOM when the call came. Her ashen face rounded the corner while the phone attached to her ear periodically barked information. The barking stopped momentarily, and Mom turned to us. “I think you’d better sit down,” she croaked. “Louie is being life-flighted to University of Utah medical center.” Louie, [...]

As I have many sisters, someday I shall have a daughter, (as you are all my sisters, and all my daughters) and she will look at me, with my three legs and one arm, raising her and her sisters to God, pointing their souls toward Christ, And say, Mama, how is it with your third [...]

Far above Superior today I glimpsed our heaven married To the maiden Earth, and saw her slip onto her glistening finger that double wedding band; I thought: how little we can search from ground to sky only to see perchance one half of one beribboned band, much less two; ringing round rosie in all their [...]

WAS BARBIE FROM THE TRIASSIC PERIOD? I wondered yesterday as I watched my son and daughter playing together with each of their favorite toys. Barbie and Triceratops were happily frolicking through the den, apparently either married or dating. They were looking for some of Jocelyn’s other Barbies (their offspring?). Once found, they were all picked [...]

I HAVE a crazy aunt. Every family flock has a few colorful birds, and she is one of ours. My aunt is an artist with a flair for the unconventional. From Native American jewelry and belly dancing to the more typical branches of sculpture and painting, her medium is life itself. Nothing she encounters escapes untouched. [...]

CREATION. Creation of little people. Little bodies being formed in the womb. We mammals are interesting creatures; our motherhood astounds me. I am confused amid my early pregnancy as I make the very enlightened discovery that every person I see had to be born to get here. Born? Yes, every human being on earth was inside [...]

Smiling, Mischevious, And proud, she Takes all the Clothes off the shelf, The books too, And cleans the drawer. Jane is learning to walk. LANI WHITNEY lives with her husband Lance and their five children in Twin Falls, Idaho. She earned an English degree from BYU, and is currently a busy and happy full-time mother. [...]

One eternal round, (You’re tellin’ me!) No beginning and No end. Sameness In this job of Day to day Mothering. Eternal round of Messes today, eternal Round of joy forever— These smiles and Rolls of fat, upstretched Arms Throughout these Days of preparation. LANI WHITNEY lives with her husband Lance and their five children in [...]

Beverly Brough Campbell served for twelve years as director of International Affairs for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., she worked with ambassadors and other leaders in the nation’s capital and at the U.N. to open doors of understanding and access for the Church throughout the world. Brigham Young University [...]

SEGULLAH IS NOT A WORD you will hear on the streets of Downtown, USA. You’re not even likely to hear it in the halls of academia. First of all, it’s Hebrew. Secondly, it’s based on a concept that is out of style. Segullah is about divinely instituted covenants, and about a people who take them seriously. “For [...]

For all have not every gift given unto them; for there are many gifts, and to every man is given a gift by the Spirit of God. (D&C 46:11) Preparation My seven-year-old granddaughter asked if I would make Halloween cards with her for a school party. In anticipation, she collected construction paper and markers and confidently [...]

TO SAY THAT I HAVE BEEN acquainted with infertility for two years now doesn’t sound like a lot of time. Many go for double and triple that amount. Sarah, the wife of Abraham, longed for a baby for almost a lifetime. But to those of us whose sorrows seem to be intimately tied to our monthly [...]

And after ye have obtained a hope in Christ ye shall obtain . . . the intent to do good—to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry, and to liberate the captive, and administer relief to the sick and the afflicted. (Jacob 2:19) IT’S 7:15 MONDAY MORNING. I’m on my knees on the hardwood floor, searching for [...]

AFTER OVER FIFTEEN YEARS of medical procedures and doctors, my friend was pregnant. A mere three weeks before her baby was due, his umbilical cord became wrapped around his neck, and he died. They buried him in the smallest casket I have ever seen. In the last year alone, I’ve been to funerals of young mothers, [...]