grief & joy are intertwined

The title pretty much says what I’ve been thinking (and feeling) a lot lately: that grief and joy are very much intertwined. I recently got a new kitten. She’s all black and so, of course, I named her after the black cat in Animal Crossing named Kiki. She’s brought so much joy already (and also

“healthy” isn’t the same for everyone

Trigger warning for talking about weight loss/gain. In the fall of 2017, when I was 19 years old, I lost a lot of weight. I was on a medication for chronic migraine that was working well at first, but did come with a lot of side effects — including weight loss. I didn’t mind the

church talk & vulnerability

I haven’t listened to a sermon in months. My younger self – from even just a few years ago – would be flabbergasted by this. I was in church for years. I loved church; I threw my whole self into it. The music, the scriptures, the sermons: all of it brought me so much comfort,

Human Overboard: My Thoughts

James and the Shame (Rhett McLaughlin) recently released a country music album titled “Human Overboard”, with 11 songs that share different aspects of his personal deconstruction story. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVkdI7gZ0gU This is a link to an episode of their (Rhett and Link’s) podcast, Ear Biscuits, in which Rhett and Link discuss the album. I’ve written a previous

Why I Am In Favor Of Debt Forgiveness

Lately, with Joe Biden’s $10,000 debt forgiveness plan, I’ve seen a lot of people discussing the issue. People’s experiences and perspectives lead them to their conclusions – some people feel it would be better going towards medical debt rather than educational debt, for example. I think that’s a fair and valid point. I also know

Loss and Chronic Pain

Earlier this week, on August 2, 2022, my cat Frodo was euthanized. Similar to our other cat Snowflake – who died on May 8, 2020 – he had blood work done which showed he was starting to have kidney failure. He had lived a good long life, and we didn’t want things to get worse

James and the Shame “Believe Me” – My Thoughts

Lyrics: “I think you want an answer I’m not prepared to give, ’cause the one I gave you said that that ain’t it. Must be something that I want – fame and fortune, or at least a little jaunt. It may seem too cut and dried, but I just found some things I could not

Why I Want Abortion To Be Legal

Growing up, I was very much pro-life. I was raised in conservative evangelical Christianity: this is pretty much just a given when you’re in that camp. It’s assumed you hold the pro-life stance. And while people have varying degrees to which they agree with the stance (some may make exceptions for rape/incest for example), it

More Thoughts on Easter & Resurrection

I know we’re past Easter 2022, but the following words from J.S. Park about Easter and resurrection keep coming to mind for me: “For so many of us, there is simply no resurrection. It can be painful to see in Scripture how the sick were healed and the dead were raised— all while so many

Resurrection: Literal or Metaphorical (or both)?

I recently saw a tweet asking Christians if or how their lives/faith would change if the resurrection of Jesus could be definitively proven as false. Reading through the responses was interesting as it presented many different people’s perspectives and experiences and why they chose to see resurrection as literal or metaphorical (or some of both).