At various times, I have speculated about reasons why my mother didn’t do the things she often talked about. What was the altar she sacrificed on?
Step 1. Heat 1 ½ cups of oil in a pan to around 350 ° F. Preferably use an oil with a high smoke point like canola or grapeseed.My kitchen smoldered slowly. The cast-iron skillet left a crescent moon shape uncovered on the scarlet burner. I instinctively grabbed the handle and moved it to the center to restore space. The eclipse haunted me. Tiny drops of the amber oil escaped and barreled to the edge of the skillet, popping on my smooth, flexed forearm. I jerked back in response. The fire was too high. It happened sometimes, whenever I remembered. […]
How did she feel when she wore it, a child born in 2007 wearing a trench coat made in 1987? Did she wear it to not look like herself? Did she also wear it for Halloween? Or for a school play? For a photoshoot? For a dress-up party? Where could I find her?
It’s the part of Christmas break where cooking becomes difficult because all of my children are sleeping with the mixing bowls. Even though they haven’t thrown up since last week, the bowl’s silvery presence comforts them with some semblance of control over what is clearly beyond all of us. I’m hesitant to retrieve them. I don’t know if I can take another night of being dragged out of bed at 2 a.m. to change someone’s sheets.So I make do with the few remaining bowls, even though they are too small, piecing together tonight’s dinner out of various holiday leftovers. Even […]
Read by authorI used to wonder why there were so many stories in the children’s Friend magazine about praying over lost objects. Then I had children, and I understood.My kids are constantly losing things. Shoes. Socks. Homework. Treasured stuffed animals. They even manage to lose my things: remote controls, charging cords, kitchen utensils, keys. And kids are also terrible at looking for lost things. My twelve-year-old son stands in the middle of his messy bedroom, casting a cursory glance over the items strewn all over his floor before declaring that his scriptures have disappeared and will never be found. Losing things […]
The image on the front? A woman weeping. She sits on the blue carpeted floor of the sparsely decorated bedroom in her first home, alone in a corner. I pick up my pen and begin, wishing I could go back and tell you — the woman sitting there — “It gets easier.” But with luck, this message will still find you.Go ahead and weep, but when your tears are gone, get up and enjoy this very moment you are living. It gets easier.Life is rich and wonderful, and yours will be all that and more. Kick the perfection habit now, don’t […]
. . . this summer, more and more, I find myself watching.
Poised between rejection and acceptance, I have been asking the wrong question. Not “why don’t I dress up?” but rather, “how naked am I willing to be?“
Besides, they were just things, right? I didn’t need his clothing to keep alive my memories.
I can recount thirty years of disappointing gifts from my husband — he simply had no clue. There was the electric can opener for our anniversary, a garage parking sign, the claustrophobic footed-robe that tripped me when I walked. I was forewarned by my new mother-in-law when she begged me to take over buying the family gifts from him. It got to the point that my husband would automatically include the sales receipts with his gifts, knowing I would likely want to return or exchange them. I felt awful doing so, but could fill only so many drawers with unwanted […]
Exponent II provides feminist forums for women and gender minorities across the Mormon spectrum to share their diverse life experiences in an atmosphere of trust and acceptance. Through these exchanges, we strive to create a community to better understand and support each other.
