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Welcome to Arras Theme!
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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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Tag Cloud
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Latest Headlines
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Our First Speaker? Me!
Posted on September 18, 2011 | 2 CommentsLast Sunday, I gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting. It had been four years since I had been asked to speak, so believe it or not, I was excited about the assignment. Even better? My topic was “Getting the Most Out of Sunday School.” I […] -
Ride to Rocky Mountain Retreat
Posted on September 18, 2011 | No CommentsToday’s ride to church comes to us from Paula, our favorite Ride to Church veteran. ; I have one last Ride to Church, a ride to The Rocky Mountain Retreat, a yearly ritual for me. Eighteen years ago, a group of my friends and I […] -
11 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: How Do You Solve a Problem Like Modesty? (Guest)
Posted on September 17, 2011 | 14 Comments[This week we pass the microphone to Heidi, a fellow cheap-seater. Heidi, it’s all yours. . .] Like many cheap-seaters and feminists, I’m not a fan of the modesty discourse at church. There have already been many great conversations about what’s wrong with four-year-olds […] -
Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren . . .
Posted on September 16, 2011 | 3 CommentsEvery 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 and her family have a great tradition of family service that she […] -
The Wish Tree
Posted on September 15, 2011 | 1 CommentI 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 corner and beheld the Wish Tree. -
GradeSpeed: Friend or Foe?
Posted on September 14, 2011 | 16 CommentsI think I was a freshman in high school when I got my first C-in Algebra II-on my report card. I was sick about it. I knew I had been struggling, but I guess had foolishly hoped that when all the final grades were […] -
A Chronology of Pop Culture Heroines
Posted on September 13, 2011 | 17 CommentsPart One, ages 6 to 18 -
Like a Rolling Stone
Posted on September 12, 2011 | 8 Commentsby Randy B “[S]eek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” Matthew 7:7 A few years ago, I had become all but convinced that nobody was making any new music worth listening to anymore. I still had my […] -
The Long Goodbye
Posted on September 12, 2011 | No CommentsWhile I sat in the pediatrician’s office on three different days in the last 10 days, waiting and waiting for each kid’s well-check appointment, I picked up several magazines I don’t usually read. Ladies Home Journal was one of them. This article called […] -
Meditation Station
Posted on September 11, 2011 | 4 CommentsIf you were to open your green hymnbook emblazoned with that nifty gold Tabernacle organ icon to page hymn #144, you’d find this ode to solitude, a song about the necessity of quiet, private places in one’s spiritual life, “Secret Prayer”: There is an hour […] -
Church Walk/Ride in Austin, Texas
Posted on September 11, 2011 | 1 CommentWe recently took a family trip to Austin, Texas. Oddly, I have spent nearly 30 years living in Texas and have only been to Austin once, to visit a BYU roommate en route back to BYU. So we headed out on a Wednesday and spent […] -
Slipping through God’s Fingers
Posted on September 7, 2011 | 20 CommentsIn August, I underwent a 40-hour training to become a guardian ad litem or a “CASA” (court-appointed special advocate) for children in the foster care system. I was surprised to learn how many kids in our little town have been removed from their parents’ homes […] -
Embrace Life on 9/11
Posted on September 7, 2011 | No CommentsI struggle to know what to do/how to handle 9/11 with my kids. They ask a lot of questions, those kids of ours. So I was glad to read this article and grateful for its message. It’s always good to be reminded of the fragility […] -
Book Lover
Posted on September 6, 2011 | 7 CommentsI’m not afraid to admit it. I have a problem. I’m addicted to books. I thought I had kept it hidden for many years, but when my wife finally catches me looking at the most recent Library of America catalogue with lust in my eyes, […] -
White as Snow
Posted on September 5, 2011 | 12 CommentsTo me, these white clothing traditions are cultural in nature and are just part of being a Mormon, but to some they represent yet one more way to cast judgments on each other: What message does it send when someone wears a blue striped shirt to church? -
Ride to Church in Vlora and Old Dukat, Albania
Posted on September 4, 2011 | 5 CommentsToday’s stunning Ride to Church comes to us from my friend Eralda, who took these pictures in Albania (her home country). Eralda took pictures in two different cities and writes: One is from my way to the Catholic church in Vlora, my hometown that is […] -
Schooled
Posted on September 4, 2011 | 4 CommentsThe kids and I began this school year with everything organized and ready. Clothes, backpacks, lunches — all ready to go. I summoned my inner “Tiger Mom” and set up our homework station and check off sheets, and prepared to whip those kids into academic […] -
The Windows of Heaven Shut: A Historic Moment Denied By A Publication Called LDS Newsroom Blog
Posted on September 3, 2011 | 32 CommentsThis post comes to Doves & Serpents from Atticus F. McConkie. Joanna Brooks, a respected author and scholar, and faithful member of the Church, in an August 24 article in Religion Dispatches, covered the significant news that Mitch Mayne, a Mormon who happens to be […] -
10 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: The WORST Talks Ever
Posted on September 3, 2011 | 67 CommentsBased on an informal poll of cheap seaters, these are the worst conference talks, GA talks, and other official pronouncements in the last forty years. -
We Must See Past What it Seems
Posted on September 1, 2011 | 1 CommentStumbled across this blog post somehow on Facebook and was really moved by it. It’s a good reminder that we never know what’s going on below the surface when we interact with people. We don’t know what kind of silent pain or misery […] -
Crash Test
Posted on September 1, 2011 | 2 CommentsThe 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. -
Knit Together: Back to School Edition
Posted on August 31, 2011 | No CommentsI love back-to-school season. I love it because it means my kids will be back in school and not at home watching too much TV, bickering all day long, and eating us out of house and home. But I also love it because it’s part […] -
Help Start the Student Review
Posted on August 31, 2011 | No CommentsAh, seeing this brings me back to the good ole’ BYU days. If you were at BYU in the early 90s and enjoyed the Student Review, please consider donating. They’re trying to raise $1000 in donations to cover the printing costs. So go […] -
I Feel Fine
Posted on August 30, 2011 | 3 CommentsThis week, in video form: 1. Everything was going surpisingly well … 2. And then everything seemed to break — our car, the vacuum and computer. For good measure, someone smashed the window of our van with a rock. 3. We were also asked to […] -
Getting Glenn Beck’s Blessing
Posted on August 29, 2011 | 9 CommentsGlenn Beck: How many warnings do you think you're going to get, and how many warnings do you deserve? This hurricane that is coming thorough the East Coast, for anyone who's in the East Coast and has been listening to me say 'Food storage!' 'Be prepared!' -
Ride to Church in Queens, NY
Posted on August 28, 2011 | 11 CommentsToday’s Ride to Church comes to us from my very smart and beautiful 16-year-old niece, Synneve. This post has been all queued up and ready to go for a couple weeks–long before Hurricane Irene was on the horizon. So I decided to run it today […] -
09 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Faith is the Miracle
Posted on August 28, 2011 | 5 CommentsFaith doesn't affect anything. It doesn't cause anything. Faith is a commitment to see the world in a particular way. It's about choosing to look through the kaleidoscope. -
Staff Stacks
Posted on August 24, 2011 | 10 CommentsCheck out what the Doves and Serpents writers are into now! -
Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on your Wrath
Posted on August 24, 2011 | 3 CommentsIs anyone else skeptical when older people who have been married for a long time say that they have never fought with each other? This seems preposterous to me (although I confess that Brent does refer to me as the “Queen of Incredulity” because I […] -
On Starting High School
Posted on August 22, 2011 | 15 CommentsDear Kennedy, Today is your first day as a high school freshman. This is madness. When we dropped you off today, I remembered taking you to kindergarten and feeling nervous about leaving you to interface with what looked like menacing fifth graders-“big kids.” And then […] -
08 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Painting by the Numbers
Posted on August 21, 2011 | 24 CommentsIt's about the process, not the outcome. Painting by the numbers, regardless of how carefully, isn't the same as painting our own picture-and learning to paint on our own, I suspect, will be what will matter the most in the end. -
Doubting Thomas & Me
Posted on August 21, 2011 | 8 Comments“Faith is like a little seed. If planted it will grow,” sing the Primary children. The Book of Alma extends the metaphor of faith as a seed beautifully. While I’m not sure where doubt fits into the metaphor (an unopened seed package?), I wish we […] -
Pauli’s (Train) Ride to the Rocky Mountains
Posted on August 21, 2011 | 8 CommentsToday’s Ride to Church comes to us from Pauli from Highlandlake/Mead, Colorado. ; I haven’t attend formal church services now for over 10 years. Instead, I find my spiritual connections in the countryside that surrounds my rural home in Highlandlake/Mead, Colorado and the mountains to […] -
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Posted on August 19, 2011 | 9 CommentsI am here one day, and on the next, I am gone. Yet I am part of a community, a society, and a species, that will continue after I am dead. I live in the immeasurable debt and preparation of those who have gone before, […] -
“The 2011 OB Drink Give-away”
Posted on August 18, 2011 | 19 CommentsI’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 last time we had this many 100+ days was in 1980-something. As of August 16, […] -
Saving Her Pennies
Posted on August 17, 2011 | 10 CommentsWhen my kids were younger, I naively fantasized about how great it would be once they got out of daycare and into school. We’d suddenly have so much more disposable income because of reduced child care costs! Well, all three of our kids are well […] -
When We Lived in Uncle’s Hat
Posted on August 16, 2011 | 12 CommentsWhen We Lived in Uncle's Hat explores what makes a home or a family -- the family goes through many incarnations --and how it can be difficult to find a place that feels like home. -
Place and Grace
Posted on August 15, 2011 | 4 CommentsMy fondest childhood memories are on a boat. Nearly every summer time was spent at a lake or reservoir swimming, skiing or just driving around. The feeling of warm air blowing my hair back as the sun gently kisses my face leaving freckled remnants behind […] -
Stephanie’s Walk to “Church”
Posted on August 14, 2011 | 4 CommentsToday’s “Ride to Church” comes to us from Stephanie Durden Edwards of Missouri. Stephanie writes: ; My Sundays used to look and feel a whole lot different than they do now. Rushing around to have lesson materials ready, wrestling toddlers into dress shoes […] -
07 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: Spiritual Pinball
Posted on August 13, 2011 | 11 CommentsThese strategies are how we self-soothe, in a spiritual sense. They are the pinball bumpers of Mormonism-bumpers that will keep the ball in play for a lifetime, or as long as one keeps playing. -
The Rabbit Hole
Posted on August 12, 2011 | 6 CommentsToday’s guest post was written by Amanda Mixon, a graduate student of English at Texas State University in San Marcos, Texas. This is where John Cameron Mitchell’s (director) Rabbit Hole takes us: the mourning process; in media res. An adaptation of David Lindsay-Abaire’s play of […] -
Window to Utopia
Posted on August 11, 2011 | 6 CommentsWhat would heaven be like, for a teenager? -
Around the Dinner Table: Do What You Are
Posted on August 10, 2011 | 9 Comments; [This is kind of cheating because it didn’t actually occur around the dinner table. It occurred in our mini-van, but it was dinner table-esque.] We spent 6 hours last weekend driving to and from our niece’s baptism (a beautiful family affair followed by hours […] -
Husband and Wife Book Club: The Road
Posted on August 9, 2011 | 10 CommentsRead The Road only if you can handle the bittersweetness of life. Read The Road only if you can bear to carry the torch. -
Fast (?) Sunday
Posted on August 7, 2011 | 11 CommentsIt is the first Sunday of the month. In many Mormon families that means one thing: no breakfast! Well, that’s a bit of an oversimplification, I’ll admit, but fasting (for twenty-four hours or as close as you can get) is customary on the first Sunday […] -
Ride to Church + in Snake River, Idaho
Posted on August 7, 2011 | 5 CommentsToday’s post comes to us from Sean whose personal blog can be found here: www.inlimine.blogspot.com To fully enjoy Sean’s ride, you have to read the text (below the slideshow) while clicking through the pictures. ; Most of my life, I live in a suburb […] -
06 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: The Real Story
Posted on August 6, 2011 | 54 CommentsWe learn the mental gymnastics of religious apologetics like Hispanics learn soccer. -
The Tree of Life
Posted on August 5, 2011 | 6 CommentsThe Tree of Life begins with a quotation from The Book of Job: “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth . . . What supports its foundations, and who laid its cornerstone as the morning stars sang together and all the […] -
The Nursery Window
Posted on August 4, 2011 | 2 Comments"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 then flew back; but the window was barred, for mother had forgotten all about me, and there was another little boy sleeping in my bed." -
My Little Red Book
Posted on August 3, 2011 | 10 CommentsI recently re-read a book called My Little Red Book-a compilation of first period stories written by women from all over the world. I read it for the first time maybe two years ago and tried to nudge my then 12-year-old daughter to read it. […] -
Mormon Matters 45: The Mormon Practice of Bearing Testimony
Posted on August 3, 2011 | 2 CommentsAs a result of Brent’s latest Mormon in the Cheap Seats posts (Build Out, Not Up and On Testimonies), Mormon Matters just did a podcast regarding Mormons and the practice of bearing testimony. Dan Wotherspoon moderated the discussion with a great panel: Brent […] -
The Husband and Wife Summer Book Club
Posted on August 2, 2011 | 21 CommentsI've written in the past about how different our literary taste tends to be. We are reliable (and not always complimentary) opposites. -
Like a Virgin
Posted on August 1, 2011 | 7 Comments“10% of yoga is the outfit, 10% are the poses” the teacher joked at the beginning of class, then followed up more seriously with “80% is just showing up.” She may be on to something. So many aspects of life I wait to “show up” […] -
10 Seconds with Tinkerbell
Posted on July 31, 2011 | 9 CommentsThis week I found myself in that place Tinkerbell is so fond of — the place between asleep and awake. I opened my eyes from an awkward catnap on the I-80 in Nevada, and for a few brief moments I forgot which Honda I was […] -
Ride to Music and the Spoken Word
Posted on July 31, 2011 | 7 CommentsToday’s Ride to Music and the Spoken Word comes to us from Katrina Barker Anderson, who took pictures of her family’s ride to Music and the Spoken Word in Salt Lake City in conjunction with a Mormon Stories conference in June 2011. ; -
05 A Mormon in the Cheap Seats: On Testimonies
Posted on July 30, 2011 | 19 CommentsI like fast and testimony meetings. I like them even though I sometimes feel like I've wandered into a UFO convention by mistake. -
Mormon Film Pioneers
Posted on July 29, 2011 | 20 CommentsI believe we have stories to tell and if we don't do it, it will be done for us. -
We Are Pioneers
Posted on July 28, 2011 | 4 CommentsAs 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 know inside it's a good thing to do, we are pioneers. -
A Twist on “Pioneer Day”
Posted on July 27, 2011 | 2 CommentsWhen it was announced that gays and lesbians would be allowed to marry in New York beginning on July 24, my first thought–as a lifelong Mormon–was, “Pioneer Day!” While we’ve been talking about pioneers this week on Doves & Serpents, I have loved reading […] -
Letters to My Polygamist Ancestors
Posted on July 27, 2011 | 15 CommentsBy Dayna Patterson ; Letters to My Polygamist Ancestors Dear Charles, What was it like to have three wives? It must have been confusing, especially since you chose women with rhyming names-Johannah, Susannah, and Hannah. Did you call them all Anna? Did you ever mix […]