Anxiety

Music That Causes Earthquakes

A devotion of Psalm 100. 1 Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands! The command for our business of the day is to make a joyful shout to the Lord. No matter what you’re going through, your first order of business is to make a joyful shout. He has been commanding usContinue reading “Music That Causes Earthquakes”

As a Mother of Two Black Men

I beseech you, As a mother of two black men. I want them to live to run in the street, to play a mean guitar stanza and hold a crazy karate stance. To do whatever they were made to do without worrying if they will come home to live some more. They are myContinue reading “As a Mother of Two Black Men”

Rear View

I’m sitting in the car. It’s freezing outside. I’m on a hilltop, parked outside a gate. I’ve backed up to the gate because mama always said, “Always think of the getting out, before you think of the getting in.” My son is feeding a friend’s animals. I am waiting for him. It’s been ten minutes.Continue reading “Rear View”

Together Forever – Thwarted

I. Today the Rancher separated the 3 calves from the mothers to wean them. They are across a fence from each other. The mothers moo forlornly for their young who are frolicking carefree in the next field. Even while they chew, the heart-sick mother’s moo. It’ll be a long week hearing their pathetic bellowing. II.Continue reading “Together Forever – Thwarted”

Panacea for Bashful Pupils

I bolted towards dad as soon as I saw his car in the parents’ parking line at Muthaiga Primary School. There weren’t any cars left. I hopped in beside him and settled into the edge of the seat with my massive orange rucksack still on my back. My feet barely touched the floor and myContinue reading “Panacea for Bashful Pupils”

Grief Gauntlet

Today marks the end of my annual grief gauntlet. It starts subtly enough with the passing of summer, my favorite season. The weather gets cooler and the days shorter. Then I know it’s time to get my game face on. On September 29th five years ago, my sister passed away from ovarian cancer at theContinue reading “Grief Gauntlet”

Meant to Belong to a Herd

Part I: OXYTOCIN I took a magnificent Dementia class by fellow occupational therapist Teepa Snow. She taught a contact technique to use on people with dementia. She elaborated that it led to the release of Oxytocin, a hormone produced in mammalian brains. I call it our herd hormone. I later learned it controls social recognitionContinue reading “Meant to Belong to a Herd”

I Don’t Need You

“How do you do it?” her new friend gasped incredulously. My kid sister Jackie was at a children’s birthday party and had just shared that she was a single mum. She got this reaction almost every time. This time an extraordinary sense of ownership welled inside her. “I do it just fine with the Lord.”Continue reading “I Don’t Need You”

If You Believe

If you know anything me, it’s my feelings about cows. You can find contributing factors here: https://thukumainen.wordpress.com/2016/10/11/wild-about-cows/. And to think I am married to a man who calls himself a rancher. Very sad. I posted that blog a year ago and my feelings haven’t changed much. Shortly after that, Emma who’d grown up on aContinue reading “If You Believe”