In July of last year, I experienced heart failure. Takatsubo cardiomyopathy, to be exact. A more informal name for it is broken-heart syndrome. It is usually triggered by emotional stress and anxiety. This, indeed, is what I had been experiencing prior to the attack. Copyright: irstone...
In Luke 22:42, Jesus says, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done" (NIV). At the same time, in Matthew 7:7, he tells us, “Ask and it will be given to you…” Until recently, I assumed that these two verses clashed. I was...
As I approached my thirtieth birthday in December, I was anxious a big existential crisis might hit. I kept thinking, “Well, I didn’t really have a quarter-life crisis at twenty-five like a lot of my friends did, so I’m probably overdue…” But the...
As a human being in the globalized culture of the twenty-first century, I am very aware of my implicit biases. I have two black sons and two wonderful black grandsons. To my sorrow I still show bias against black men on the Harvard University implicit bias test. But while I grieve the...
When my husband and I moved to San Jose in 2015, I wasn’t prepared for life in a busier area. We’re on the corner of three very different neighborhoods, have wonderful neighbors, and can get to pretty much anywhere in San Jose quickly. For a sense of peaceful connection with...
“We discover the art of packaging our self. What begins a role we play becomes an identity. Our masks have become our reality; and we have become our lives.” – psychologist David Benner, The Gift of Being Yourself: The Sacred Call to Self-Discovery As we explore the...
Growing up, I had pink wallpaper in my room. But that was the extent of my girliness. I have a picture of me as a three-year old, and I’m wearing a pantsuit. No bows, no dresses, just a simple haircut with blunt bangs and a pantsuit. My heroes growing up were Luke Skywalker...
If you are from an African country or know anything about the cultures, then you might be familiar with this view of relationships and marriage: At a certain age, especially if you are a woman, everyone around you begins to strongly suggest you take steps toward getting married. In that...
Person by person, my generation is passing away. And there are so many of us. Each day, ten thousand members of my generation reach retirement age. Funerals are constant among my peers. It is an easy conversation starter when I approach someone my age and ask about plans for retirement...
“So be strong, act like a man...” - King David to his son Solomon, toward the end of David’s life (1 Kings 2:2, NIV) When I was about ten years old, I asked for my dad’s help in dealing with some challenging kids in the neighborhood. There was no...