I thought I knew everything once. Young, quick of tongue, pregnant with opinions and quietly rebellious. Having travelled around the sun a few more times since youth, I see how wrong I was about most things that fuelled my arrogant words. The mental replays make me cringe. There I am, …
Whenever I see a coin tossed on the ground or the floor, I pick it up. Among other things, coins remind me of childhood days. We weren’t as well-situated as the neighbours, but our family had wealth nonetheless. At around ten, I ran a flourishing counterfeiting scheme from our kitchen …
At this writing, our globe has grappled with COVID-19 for almost a year. It has changed everything for too many people, and too many things for everyone. “I don’t want a new normal,” my friend said, referring to those pandemic changes. She stamped her foot a bit and fumed. “I—we …
“Why do you always seem glum?” someone asked my friend and fellow Christ-follower. “Christians should be joyful!” My friend, serious by nature, felt challenged and somewhat bruised by that question. For a time she wondered if she’d gotten something wrong in her faith and life equation. If her joy-basket had a hole …
A different way to look at your closed doors In 2007 West Nile Neurological Disease removed the Preacher from full-time ministry as a member of the clergy. But following a period of rehabilitation, Sunday mornings often still found him preaching in various pulpits temporarily or permanently without pastors. …
Through my work as a writer and my job as assistant to a Member of Parliament, I’ve had the privilege of getting to know people vastly unlike myself. Some come from places I’ve never visited. Most have different backgrounds and experiences. Many have different faiths and different perspectives on …
I’m pounding the keyboard of my old Dell into the table right now. I spoke to a young friend earlier today. Yesterday was unseasonably warm for mid-winter. It seems that someone, taking advantage of the thaw, trespassed onto their family’s property and turned on an outside tap. All night long, …
“What are you here to do for us tonight?” one of the 2007 Britain’s Got Talent judges asked, eyeing contestant #31829. There he stood, thirty-six years old, with an awkward stance and too many chins. He’d dreamed of spending his life singing. He knew he’d been born to it. But …
I’m sorry. That’s all I can say to those who feel the joy has been sucked from their Christmas because they’ve encountered less-than-charitable Christians who stridently insist everyone use the phrase “Merry Christmas” rather than “Happy Holidays.” What disturbs me most about that is that from what I’ve observed, the …
Halloween. I’ve tiptoed around the unholy holiday for years, decades even; some years just choosing to be away from home on October 31st; some hiding in the basement, and others, joining in with what everyone else was doing. Trying to find the fun in it; trying to ignore the very …
