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Recent Posts
- Psaltery & Lyre’s New Site
- 123 Psaltery & Lyre: “Agricola Dreams of Flying” by J. Rose Lara
- 122 Psaltery & Lyre: “Communion: a love poem (a villanelle)” by Rachel Bollinger
- Book Review: Philip Metres’s Sand Opera
- 121 Psaltery & Lyre: Rachael Matthews, “Horsehead Nebula”
- Book Review: Monica Ong’s Silent Anatomies
- 120 Psaltery & Lyre: Rachael Matthews, “Return, pt. III” and “Gaia”
- Book Review: Claudia Rankine’s Don’t Let Me Be Lonely
- Book Review: Matthea Harvey, If the Tabloids Are True What Are You?
- Book Review: LoterÃa Cards and Fortune Poems: A Book of Lives
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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... -
Encounters: Collapsing Inside
Driving by the cemetery that day, I happened to look right and saw an older man with unkempt hair sitting... -
Encounters: I Passed By
I was enjoying the beautiful evening as I crossed the Maeser quad, and I heard her before I saw her.... -
Election Week Musings
If we are supposed to be a Christian nation, as so many claim, let us behave today as Christ would.... -
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... -
Chupacabra
Sometimes, in our pursuit of service, we are asked to do strange things. Today’s guest post from Terry chronicles... -
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... -
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... -
Dog Heaven
. You know how we all imagine that ‘dog heaven’ will be a place where dogs get to do what... -
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... -
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... -
Roller Coaster
A year ago, I was living in a daze. I was spending most nights curled up against my... -
Santa and I
The year I turned four or five, we drove to my grandparents in central Wisconsin for Christmas. Actually, we... -
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...
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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... -
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... -
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... -
Moral Issues
Today on our local NPR affiliate, a local Stake Presidency member was interviewed about the roll-out of the “I’m a... -
Favorites: Business Lunch
I asked a group with an empty chair if I could sit with them. A young man’s smile put me... -
Assertiveness Training
I knew that even small acts of assertiveness would be important. Maybe it didn’t change the world but for that... -
Finding Peace
Forgiveness. As babies and young children, we can’t help but forgive those that wrong us. We have no... -
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... -
The Wish Tree
I had my five year old daughter with me and I was a bit disappointed that I couldn’t get her... -
Crash Test
The thought of any inexperienced driver in charge of a 4,000 pound machine makes me very nervous, but anticipating my... -
“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... -
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... -
We Are Pioneers
As I was telling my Kindergartner earlier this month that we’re all pioneers in some way. Whenever we stand up... -
The Gluttonous Baby
For as long as humans have made objects, there have been baby dolls. It’s an almost universal phenomenon that... -
Operation Stop Arm
My neighbor Sheri and I watched motorists pass our children’s school bus for years. We took video, called the police,... -
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... -
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... -
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... -
Moneybags
Money Memory #1: A few years ago I found $20 in an old canvas purse. I should note that it... -
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... -
Angels with Power Tools
When you hear the words “Compassionate Service” what comes to mind? This is like one of those word association... -
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... -
Twelfth Lunch
November 11th, 2010 I gave away the last lunch (somehow, the story of the eleventh lunch was never recorded and... -
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... -
Find Your Tribe
Over a decade ago I read this article in Mothering Magazine about a woman who is far from family and... -
Kids and Calamities
I watched the Twin Towers fall on TV, my oldest child safely ensconced in her kindergarten class. My toddler... -
Parallel Journeys
By Claudia On my personal blog, I am known as “The Faithful Dissident.” For the past three years, I’ve been... -
“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... -
Talents: Addition and Multiplication
This is a guest post from a favorite reader and commenter, Corktree. It may sound simplistic (or just serving of... -
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...