Monthly Archives: May 2018

Nine Months

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Today the sky surrounding me is azure and clear, the heat rises to embrace my skin, and a fountain bubbles and splatters happily nearby. It’s mid-May, and here I sit and consider the past nine months. I didn’t realize the play on words and timing until just this moment – nine months.

Nineteen years ago in mid-May, I was contemplating a very different nine months: nearly nine months pregnant with twins while parenting a clever and headstrong, tow-headed two-year-old. My mind’s ramblings were full of both hopes and dreams and tiredness and impatience. My dim sleep-deprived eyes were bright with promise. Continue reading →

Kintsugi

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Broken

I have a small porcelain dish that used to belong to my maternal grandmother. G&H Porcelain ImprintIt is pearlescent white with three dusty pink roses and pale green leaves on the front. It has a scalloped top edge and a short pedestal base. On the underside is a stamp of the word Germany with a golden crown above it, a G to its left, and an H to its right. Greiner & Herda, a porcelain decoration studio in Oberkotzau, Germany opened in 1886. This stamp is one of their earliest markings. 

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Open Letter to the Church

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Dear church,

I’ve been inside your walls almost every Sunday since I was born. There have been Sundays that have been missed due to a vacation or family get-together. Before we had kids, we did a bit of traveling and didn’t always make it to church. And a recent summer, I took most of the summer off. But I’d say I’ve been to church around 95% of Sundays my entire life.

I have run children’s ministries; directed musical groups; sat on the leadership team; served as financial secretary and bookkeeper; led worship teams; performed in concerts; cleaned, organized, and painted; been faithful financially; and committed energy and time to the church and her people. 

Church #2

I speak as a part of the church, not as an outsider. I speak as someone who has given much of my life not only to my faith, but to the body of believers who share that faith.

Your heart is in the right place. You have good intentions. You believe you are doing good in the world, and to be certain, there is much good done by people of faith. Continue reading →

Relative Truth

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In talking with our second twin about their choices concerning gender, I asked the question, “What do you believe is true?”

The postmodern view is that, “All truth is relative.” That’s the idea that something is true for one person but not true for another, relative to their frame of reference, language, culture, and so on, and that there is no absolute truth. Something can be true for you, and something different can be true for me. It’s all in how you see it or what you believe. Continue reading →

Questioning the Narrative

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I love diversity. I enjoy going against the grain and not conforming to people’s expectations. I’m for embracing truth within and without. I’m just not sure what the truth is regarding gender and transgenderism. I question whether the current societal and cultural narrative speaks truth and really encourages diversity and freedom.

Over many months and years of searching to find other similar voices, I have pulled together a collection of individuals who are questioning the narrative. Keep in mind that none of these sources are conservative or religious.

questioning

Continue reading →

Third Gender?

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Most people in my circles would assume that there are only two genders and there’s nothing more to think about. Case closed. Maybe that’s what I think – thought? – too.

Gender has come to refer to the social and cultural roles that tend to be associated with one or the other biological sexes and is no longer considered synonymous with physical sex.

Third GenderBut even before the meanings of gender and sex diverged, there have existed terms for people not fully male or fully female, as in Mesopotamian mythology, or from inscribed Egyptian pottery shards from 2000 BCE that list three genders: tai (male), hmt (female), and sḫt (sekhet). Sḫt is often translated as “eunuch”, although there is little evidence that such individuals were castrated. Continue reading →

Don’t you want me to be happy?

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Don’t you want me to be happy? That’s a loaded question. The obvious answer is, yes! But there’s more to it than that.

When our oldest child was in elementary school, he struggled to remember to bring home his daily math homework. Many days after arriving at home, he would say, “Oh, I forgot my homework. Can you take me back to pick up my math book?” Many, many times, I did. I always wanted my kids to be successful in school, and how can you do that when you don’t do your work and turn it in on time? So, I enabled them to get the needed items, as long as the school wasn’t already closed for the day.math homework

Eventually, though, it became such a habit. I tried to implement new strategies for helping him to remember. When I dropped him off in the morning, I reminded him to remember. When I picked him up from school, I would ask, “Do you have everything you need?” Continue reading →