“Retreating” by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
I don’t know why it took me so long to consult the paper. I knew in my bones that our gatherings had produced our projects, rather than vice versa.
Blog
Vol. 41 No. 1 – Summer 2021
The Significance of Touch
“Closing the Distance”
In March of 2021, I received a message that my grandpa — who’d been mowing his own lawn the day before — had experienced a stroke. The doctors said he had a few weeks left to live. Because of pandemic safety concerns, I couldn’t visit him in the hospital and needed to wait severa…
Excerpt from “Forty. Quarantine. Cuarenta. Quarantine.”
Forgive yourself now and each morning for your 9-5 job, teleworking instead of homeschooling. You do what you can, checking in every few hours, stroking their soft hair, less teacher and more reminder that you’re there, a waiting hug if they need one. Drink water. Go for a walk. …
“Silent on the Stage”
Watching a live performance…that intangible feeling becomes tangible for a brief time. The full content of this post is available to subscribers. Subscribe now or log in!
“Cesarean”
They pulled you from me When your body Could not find its way. A rescue. I cried. Knowing you’d be spared The pain your brother was not. Your journey was quick: Hands like nets brought you Out of the waters Into breath. Emily Feuz Jensen is a writer, mother, cat-lady, and creativ…
“Has Motherhood Been What You Expected?”
I work in customer service. After hanging up on a rude customer, I scream obscenities, burst into tears, and rush outside to sit on our back porch, body curled over my knees. My dad — visiting from out-of-state, a calculated risk in August 2020, before vaccines and at the height …
“Our Lady of Cancellation / Consolation”
Another mandate to shelter in place. I will have to call Mom, un-invite her to come to the Thanksgiving feast we’d planned. No key lime for Kim, no sleepover, no hotel pool. How could I forgive myself, Lady of Lonely Holidays, if I were the cause of her falling ill? Her cancer-ba…
“Beloved”
On October 21, 2020, I watched the most important thing in my life burn to the ground — via a live internet stream. The Troublesome Fire — the second largest fire in Colorado history — took my family ranch, the Bar DM, at the headwaters of the Colorado River. I cannot even calcul…
“Elegant Elect”
Hotel Utah, completed in 1911, was a Beaux-Arts terra cotta architectural masterpiece on the corner of Main Street and South Temple in Salt Lake City. Topped with a beehive feature that spoke to Mormon ideals of industriousness, the building embodied the city’s early 20th-century…
“I Wanna Hold Your Hand”
Q: Why hasn’t the Mormon guy I’m dating held my hand yet? A:(a) He knows you just came home from your mission and doesn’t want to pressure you(b) The Mormon physical intimacy runway before marriage is short and he’s trying to stretch it out(c) He is secretly gay(d) These aren’t d…
“Connection Despite Distance in the ER: Healing and Touch” – an Interview with Debra Marie Reynoso
Debra Marie Reynoso is an Emergency Room nurse, practicing for fourteen years, and concurrently in a Nurse Practitioner training program. This interview was conducted by Carol Ann Litster Young. What was your journey to becoming a nurse and deciding to do a nurse practitioner pro…