<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[Danielle Tells It]]></title><description><![CDATA[Danielle Tells It]]></description><link>https://mahlum1awesomeness.wixsite.com/reflectionsbyd/blog</link><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Tue, 07 Jul 2026 00:14:36 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://www.danielletellsit.com/blog-feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title><![CDATA[This Is Why You Should Never Zoom In on Old Family Photos]]></title><description><![CDATA[My mom running a marathon around 1980. A normal person would focus on the athletic achievement. I, unfortunately, noticed the background. Sometimes I like looking at this picture. Trust me, I know that sentence already sounds like the beginning of a Dateline episode where the neighbor says, “She mostly kept to herself, but she did have strong opinions about strangers in old photographs.” My mom got married in 1980, so I’m guessing this race happened somewhere in that general neighborhood of...]]></description><link>https://www.danielletellsit.com/post/this-is-why-you-should-never-zoom-in-on-old-family-photos</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a45e7259c4d1b405b261886</guid><pubDate>Thu, 02 Jul 2026 04:36:23 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/eaa416_f7d5cc1fba8d477698df8e850fa329f4~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>mahlum1awesomeness</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Laugh]]></title><description><![CDATA[Some moments don't look like much from the outside. No raised voices. No slammed doors. Just a laugh - the kind that doesn't sound cruel enough to prove anything, but still makes you feel smaller the second it lands. It wasn’t a fight. That would almost have been easier. A fight has volume. A fight has a door slam, a sentence you can quote later, a place to point and say, There. That’s where it hurt. This was smaller than that. Just a laugh. Not the kind that fills a room or saves a bad day...]]></description><link>https://www.danielletellsit.com/post/the-laugh</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a41e05a3c06bdad54252ada</guid><pubDate>Mon, 29 Jun 2026 04:01:22 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/eaa416_b7354b53967442118910b1665170a69d~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>mahlum1awesomeness</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Maui, Mafia, and the Girl Before Her Inner Critic Got a Megaphone]]></title><description><![CDATA[Maui was our first big family reunion, which sounds like the kind of trip that should be remembered mostly for beaches, sunsets, and palm trees. And yes, Maui was beautiful. Obviously. It is Maui, not the parking lot behind a grocery store. We saw the black sand beach and other places so pretty they looked like they were showing off, which, in fairness, they had every right to do. There was also a red convertible involved, because when my family rented cars to drive around the island,...]]></description><link>https://www.danielletellsit.com/post/maui-mafia-and-the-girl-before-her-inner-critic-got-a-megaphone</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a40288ad3770ea960ee5ca0</guid><pubDate>Sat, 27 Jun 2026 20:34:58 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/eaa416_63ccb25c072944479d02cd2f79feb65e~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>mahlum1awesomeness</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Ellis Island, Forever]]></title><description><![CDATA[A family-name poem about paperwork, pronunciation, and one suspiciously powerful pen. Artist’s rendering of a thing that probably did not happen exactly this way, but emotionally? Absolutely. Author’s Note Genealogy has a terrible habit of ruining a good story. When I first wrote this poem, I was playing with the old family-name legend that Mahlum was changed at Ellis Island by some tired official with a pen and too much authority. After doing more digging, I no longer think that is literally...]]></description><link>https://www.danielletellsit.com/post/ellis-island-forever</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a3b63cc7c6c6389eb874022</guid><pubDate>Wed, 24 Jun 2026 05:43:32 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/eaa416_3450c9d4075949b7bd631eb06ff81d7a~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>mahlum1awesomeness</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Bridge We Both Built]]></title><description><![CDATA[There are friendships that begin with a door held open, a seat saved beside a family, a picture sent before the moment has even cooled. Look what she’s doing. Look where we are. Look how close you may stand. And because I had been careful for so long, because I knew the danger of wanting too much from someone who could leave with clean hands, I told myself to step back. Now. Before the calling ends. Before the daily messages turn into silence. Before the place she made for me becomes a chair...]]></description><link>https://www.danielletellsit.com/post/the-bridge-we-both-built</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a3466324ee6c699ede65108</guid><pubDate>Thu, 18 Jun 2026 22:08:04 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/eaa416_529e3b74dbfa420e8f87cf466ea95a0d~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>mahlum1awesomeness</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Oregon or The Missing Variable]]></title><description><![CDATA[A story about getting turned around on a rocky Oregon trail and realizing I was no longer part of Celeste's equation. We were in Oregon, chasing waterfalls. That is how the day began. Green everywhere. Water rushing over stone. Trees rising around us like the world still knew how to be gentle. It was the kind of beauty that makes you lower your guard. The kind that makes you believe nothing terrible can happen because everything around you is too alive, too breathtaking, too full of wonder to...]]></description><link>https://www.danielletellsit.com/post/oregon-or-the-missing-variable</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a21075b345fdf6c4252a94e</guid><pubDate>Thu, 04 Jun 2026 05:57:45 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/eaa416_25213098de4b41ad9778d47a7613c348~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_400,h_265,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>mahlum1awesomeness</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Oh, There You Are]]></title><description><![CDATA[I know I’ve been a little slower getting posts out this month. The honest answer is: depression has been sitting down in the middle of my plans and refusing to move, like a toddler in Target or a cat on fresh laundry. But I’m still here. I’m still writing. I’m still trying. Some days the words come easily, and some days I stare at a half-finished paragraph like Robin Williams in Hook, waiting for someone to squish my face and say, “Oh, there you are.” Basically, I’m in my Hook era: not gone,...]]></description><link>https://www.danielletellsit.com/post/oh-there-you-are</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a20ff2d08c355371fa058d2</guid><pubDate>Thu, 04 Jun 2026 04:34:19 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/eaa416_77aa16fb34a54b13bc12e9c3a0e0e551~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>mahlum1awesomeness</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[SVU: The Late-’90s Brochure That Somehow Worked on Me ]]></title><description><![CDATA[There are certain sentences a person has to earn the right to say with a straight face. Here is one of mine: I went to Southern Virginia University because I did not get into BYU. There. We can all relax now. No one needs to call a committee. No one needs to defend Provo. No one needs to produce enrollment statistics, ACT averages, alumni success stories, or a laminated chart titled “Why BYU Is Academically Impressive and Also Has Better Sweatshirts.” I know. I knew then. BYU was the obvious...]]></description><link>https://www.danielletellsit.com/post/svu-the-late-90s-brochure-that-somehow-worked-on-me</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a0e7bfacb0791383ec43b2f</guid><pubDate>Thu, 21 May 2026 03:55:19 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/eaa416_fe08ba93b0b447c59bc79b7a9459e8df~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>mahlum1awesomeness</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Tiny French Girls, Cruise Food, and the Safety of Leftovers]]></title><description><![CDATA[Before I get into this post, I want to say something about comments. I am reading them. I promise. I’m grateful for the kindness, support, and thoughtful responses more than I probably know how to say without sounding like I’m giving an acceptance speech in the corner of a church gym. I may not always respond quickly, not because I don’t care, but because I’m easing into this part of blogging. Social interaction, even online, can take me a minute. This blog is meant to be a place for...]]></description><link>https://www.danielletellsit.com/post/tiny-french-girls-cruise-food-and-the-safety-of-leftovers</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a06a9e90b9e4f37fd23e095</guid><pubDate>Fri, 15 May 2026 05:40:26 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/eaa416_7d8c297d95f94ad993f3e64303d8bb84~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>mahlum1awesomeness</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Half a Beat Behind Angela]]></title><description><![CDATA[There are some childhood memories that arrive with all the grandeur of a major emotional turning point, and when you revisit them as an adult, you realize the whole thing was triggered by being four and not receiving a detailed enough briefing. This is one of those memories. I still remember my first class ever at Cindy’s School of Dance. Me in 1988, dressed for dance and unaware that my real talent would be emotional recovery, live-action copying, and staying half a beat behind Angela Burns...]]></description><link>https://www.danielletellsit.com/post/half-a-beat-behind-angela</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a0394a5e8ad7aab1e5d8a77</guid><pubDate>Tue, 12 May 2026 22:09:08 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/eaa416_b8298d7dbafb41cc8d479276a0c41f4f~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>mahlum1awesomeness</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Celia: The Woman I Was Named For]]></title><description><![CDATA[Three generations: my great-grandma Celia, me, and my mom Before I jump into today’s post, I wanted to say that I took a much-needed vacation for my mental health. I needed the pause, but I’m back now — and I’m all in. Celia is my middle name. I grew up knowing I was named after someone extraordinary. Not in the loud, mythologized way families sometimes tell stories, but in the quiet, steady way a name can carry a kind of gravity. My great-grandma Celia - the woman whose name I carry My...]]></description><link>https://www.danielletellsit.com/post/celia-the-woman-i-was-named-for</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a01470e68cba038e5682edd</guid><pubDate>Mon, 11 May 2026 03:42:39 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/eaa416_798599ea3bc64ebd9ba08876bcb523c1~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_941,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>mahlum1awesomeness</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[8-Bit Christmas, 912 Grassy Glen Edition]]></title><description><![CDATA[When I was a kid, I wanted a Nintendo worse than my sister Celeste wanted a drum set for Christmas in third grade. And that is saying something. You know what? Today is your lucky day, because I am about to tell you the story of how I got my Sega Master System. It is, quite possibly, the most amazing, dangerous, and awesome story of all time. So can you handle it? The year was 1987. Or maybe 1988.  No, wait.  1985 was Live Aid.  Balloonfest was 1986. The year was the late eighties. Let’s call...]]></description><link>https://www.danielletellsit.com/post/8-bit-christmas-912-grassy-glen-edition</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69d87b65a51db32c14c47cdb</guid><pubDate>Fri, 10 Apr 2026 05:16:31 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/eaa416_f3a6c624ce244e6d9e37952bd6938653~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_780,h_438,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>mahlum1awesomeness</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[What Years of The Church of Jesus Christ Singles Culture Taught Me]]></title><description><![CDATA[Being single for a long time teaches you things. Some of them are useful. Some of them are painful. And some of them arrive wearing a nice blouse and carrying enough red flags to reupholster a Buc-ee’s. I’ve spent enough time in LDS singles culture to earn an honorary doctorate in it. Mutual, singles wards, mid-singles wards, firesides, conferences, service projects, institute classes, dances in the same buildings with the same fluorescent lighting and the same panic in the air year after...]]></description><link>https://www.danielletellsit.com/post/what-years-of-the-church-of-jesus-christ-singles-culture-taught-me</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69d5c2af185db816d655be56</guid><pubDate>Wed, 08 Apr 2026 03:56:57 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/eaa416_04da8c05b70b49578db5f3ea9dde48c9~mv2.jpeg/v1/fit/w_596,h_335,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>mahlum1awesomeness</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Two Poems About Leaving Quietly]]></title><description><![CDATA[After The Chairs Were Put Away There was a season when the lights stayed on a little longer, when keys turned softly in doors I didn’t know I’d been afraid of. You never said stay, but the hallway felt wide enough that I did. There were rhythms— footsteps, folded programs, the sound of chairs stacked just right so they wouldn’t scrape. You  knew that sound. You  always did. I learned where to stand without being told. Learned how to hold silence without apologizing for it. Learned that being...]]></description><link>https://www.danielletellsit.com/post/two-poems-about-leaving-quietly</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69cc67464c31bb6f64be1dcc</guid><pubDate>Wed, 01 Apr 2026 01:18:33 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/11062b_a3e2c49ee0764adab5569465f85f78ad~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>mahlum1awesomeness</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Joy School]]></title><description><![CDATA[Picture this Allen, Texas. Mid-1980s.Before Allen had a Target, before half the town existed, there was Joy School. I was three when it started. Setting: Hillside Village, Allen, Texas. It lasted two years. There were six kids in the class. We met twice a week. There were “Joy” lessons, crafts, a graduation, and some kind of schedule to Graduation June 6, 1987 decide whose house was when. Joy School was basically a tiny neighborhood preschool operation run out of people’s living rooms, where...]]></description><link>https://www.danielletellsit.com/post/joy-school</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69bca055bec251fc0ba9a953</guid><pubDate>Fri, 20 Mar 2026 01:52:01 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/eaa416_db283b4e5eab484199cccc216c53c648~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>mahlum1awesomeness</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Allen, Texas]]></title><description><![CDATA[Allen, Texas Allen always seemed, to me,  like the kind of place that became part of you  before you even realized that was happening. Not in some dramatic way.  Just slowly.  Through school mornings and grocery-store runs,  through football traffic and familiar intersections,  through knowing exactly which turn meant  you were almost home. It is hard to explain a hometown  when you have lived inside it so long  that its streets do not feel like streets anymore.  They feel like memory. Allen...]]></description><link>https://www.danielletellsit.com/post/allen-texas</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69ba39bffde2f1f6ed2a28a9</guid><pubDate>Wed, 18 Mar 2026 06:30:40 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/eaa416_651bcedc69d7491eb8c384962e81d94a~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>mahlum1awesomeness</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Meadow I Keep]]></title><description><![CDATA[I usually grow curious about authors. I Google them. I want to know the room they’re standing in  when they speak. That’s how I found him- by accident, really- watching an interview I didn’t mean to stay for. The longer it went, The more I felt the tug- The baiting, The circling. But the man being interviewed  was smarter than the trap. He knew what was happening. He didn’t bite. And that’s when I saw it. Not loudly. Not dramatically. Just clearly. So I left. For months. Because clarity...]]></description><link>https://www.danielletellsit.com/post/the-meadow-i-keep</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69ba29f08b3a7e7764054ece</guid><pubDate>Wed, 18 Mar 2026 04:34:47 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/e423ee5ec55945d5bde255ac590637b1.jpg/v1/fit/w_800,h_534,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>mahlum1awesomeness</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[To you, Celeste]]></title><description><![CDATA[I don’t need applause. I don’t need you to understand every reason  Or agree with the path my feet chose. But I need you to know This was not small. There was a time when my voice stayed folded inside me, When hallways were louder than i was, When silence felt safer than breath. You remember that girl. Or maybe you don’t. Now, every Friday evening, I step into a place that asks something of me. Not spectacle. Not perfection. Presence. I speak. To strangers. For hours. With steadiness I once...]]></description><link>https://www.danielletellsit.com/post/to-you-celeste</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69b38cfbecfce39c49ab8011</guid><pubDate>Fri, 13 Mar 2026 04:14:32 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/eaa416_cd2ca5f4c17a46a6967e0554074edc54~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>mahlum1awesomeness</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[No Small Thing: A Sister]]></title><description><![CDATA[I’ve been trying to figure out how to write about my sister, and maybe the best way is just to start dipping the toes in. Before life got complexed and challenging, she was simply the person beside me in the beginning. My partner in crime. She appears in so many of my early memories that it’s hard to separate my childhood from her presence in it. She was familiar in the way only a sister can be — constant, close, sometimes comforting, sometimes maddening, always part of the landscape. When...]]></description><link>https://www.danielletellsit.com/post/no-small-thing-a-sister</link><guid isPermaLink="false">69b23a329f757da15ac4f077</guid><pubDate>Thu, 12 Mar 2026 04:16:50 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/eaa416_5d2b36a9e35c484396825c7b71526adb~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>mahlum1awesomeness</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Elf Gig (The One That Started It All)]]></title><description><![CDATA[When I was eight years old, I landed my first job. I say “landed” like there was a competitive hiring process, Really it was nepotism. I became the ward Christmas party elf — a position that required no training, no résumé, and only one requirement: the ability to stand still without panicking. My grandparents were the Santa and Mrs. Claus of Richardson, Texas — beloved, in-demand, practically booked out. They hit everything: church parties, community events, and every ward party within a...]]></description><link>https://www.danielletellsit.com/post/the-elf-gig-the-one-that-started-it-all</link><guid isPermaLink="false">698e92efe3f5cf1501d848a2</guid><pubDate>Fri, 13 Feb 2026 05:13:32 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/eaa416_f139c0bd5f33444a8f23b46a39c2b428~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>mahlum1awesomeness</dc:creator></item></channel></rss>