Americans’ attitudes about COVID-19 vaccination remain largely unchanged since January, but about one-fifth of those who said they would not get vaccinated have changed their minds and taken the jab. A common reason for changing their minds is seeing family…
Lessons learned during the pandemic as a parent who found joy in the desert
Months ago, we sat around the wooden table in our booth, enjoying our food and reminding our kids to be mindful of the other customers around us. With five kids under the age of 10, it isn’t an everyday experience…
Introducing the Madang podcast inspired by a desire to understand
Six months after my mother had passed in 2011, I was at my sister’s house in Toronto, going through the relics of her life in her bedroom. While most people typically conjure an image of a cluttered, archaistic, clandestine room…
Ethics at the end of life: How medicine and technology have changed the context of dying
As the school year ends and I try to process the many agonies of the annus horribilus COVID year of 2020-21, I will remember many deaths, but most especially the death of my father in late December 2020. These posts,…
Think you understand what it’s like to live on minimum wage? Here’s my story
Two weeks before I got married, I lost my job delivering pizzas because I had gotten three tickets for minor traffic violations over the previous two years. So when we got back from our honeymoon, I landed a job working…
COVID took my Mom but did not have the final word
COVID-19 thinks it took another victim tonight, Dec. 14, 2020. There will be a death listed in the Bell County, Texas, newspaper, with the State of Texas, and other databases. For my family and me, that death is not just…
Why I’m a 26-year-old mother of five
The mandate of the Scriptures in James is clear, to care for the widow and the orphan. If this is the case, then why are we so slow to do so? Why are we living in a time where there…
62 years later, we learned the truth about Uncle Ray, a truth we needed to know
Veterans Day seemed a bit more sacred to me this year. After a contentious election and reshuffling of chief military officials, I thought about our connections to those who serve on the home front or abroad, often in life-altering, terrifying…
Getting into the holiday spirit is hard this year
Along with the election next week, I cannot ignore the fact that the darkest, loneliest period of the year begins Sunday with the end of Daylight Savings Time. Before my husband’s death in April 2009, I never paid much attention…