Poetry Corner: Wedding in White

When I dream at night
I dream of a wedding in white.
When I work through the day,
I keep that dream with me to stay.

When I say white, I don't just mean the dress.
I want my husband and me wrapped in cleanliness.
Full of chastity and sparkling pure
Brimming with innocence, yet sure.

To be a virgin is, to me
more than just vocabulary.
I don't just say I will, I do it.
In all I do, I try to prove it.

Artwork courtesy of Graphicstock

A sacred marriage that will last more than life.
When my husband will take me and make me his wife.
My purity is worth so much more
than to give it up young and lose what's in store.

So why be a virgin?Why should I care?
Why won't I do all that I dare?
Why won't I leave life while I'm young.
Kick up my heals at wickedness unsung.

Because I know that pleasure's not all,
that life is more than just having a ball.
I know that through Christ, marriage is forever
and I'll not risk losing that joy, no never.




I wrote this my senior year of high school. I feel so jaded looking back at this. My life didn't play out the way I dreamed it would back then. I made some stupid mistakes, some bad choices. My husband did too, before we met. We've paid for those mistakes over and over again. But we love each other. We've worked through the mistakes we have made together, and we have worked hard to build a life together. We are still paying for some of those mistakes, but we take responsibility for what we did.

Reading this makes me want to cry. How different our lives could have been if we had been like this when we had met. But then part of me knows that he wasn't raised with this expectation of life. If I had stayed on that path, we never would have gotten together.

Thoughts on Snow and Life

I woke up this morning super sad. Once again the snow that we were promised has not come. It was warm enough to go shopping without a coat! The whole reason I moved to Utah was for the snow! We had snow for Christmas, and for that I am grateful, but one week of that beautiful white stuff was not enough.

Snow- By James Angell

As I was going about my day, I learned that a really great friend of mine, Tim Bergfield, died Friday. My husband was shocked as Tim is not much older than us. He died from natural causes, not some freak accident. He was healthy, lively and a work horse... and now he is dead. Life, like snow, seems so fleeting and the promise as ephemeral.

My colleagues laugh at me when I get disappointed at not having snow. When we get a few flickers of white fluttering from the sky they groan and complain while I get slightly giddy.  Snow is like life, when you are only focusing on how it sucks to drive in, you have to salt and shovel the driveway, and worrying about the ice that will form after then snow is a drag. But the wonder and beauty is right there before us, the way snow has the ability to take a dull and dreary world and make it light and pure and beautiful, even if only for a brief moment... that is worth the difficulty.

The giggles and snowballs, the snowmen and snow angels, sledding, hot chocolate and fires in the fireplace; everything is made better, purer, more indelible in our memory all because of the brief joy of snow.

Tim was like snow. I worked with him at Movie Gallery and he was always cheerful and energetic when we managers would get together. While the other managers complained about new standards, he was invigorated to meet the challenge. After we both left Movie Gallery, Tim and I would still hang out. He was eager for new career opportunities. Where most people would have been frustrated at changing horses mid-stream, he welcomed the new job he had and the education he needed to get to go with it.

He always made things purer, focusing on the good. He loved and lived with all his heart. He made the mundane more memorable because he was there. You will be sorely missed Tim.

Tim Bergfield- By Stephanie Mitchell Phillips