Emptying The Backpack

Anyone remember the Equal Rights Amendment?

What I was reading to prepare for the debate was novel to me, but it made sense.

Banner Week? Week From Hell? Who Knows?

It was a banner week. Or the week from hell. Depending on when you asked me. Start seminary. Check. Get divorced. Check. Buy a house solo. Check. In one week. Ugh. Scheduling all three in one week had not been my choice: the seminary starting date was set, but the other two were simply the luck of the draw.

What do we do differently?

We learned to encourage the children in our lives because each of us could remember at least one person who had encouraged us. Never underestimate the power of encouraging a child or teen; you may well be the only encouragement they receive. We refuse to keep secrets. We ask tougher questions. When we see someone sobbing, we approach them gently and ask what we can do.

What Did COVID teach us?

So many died during COVID alone and unable to be comforted by family or friends and we are more aware now than ever of the importance of being there for one another. NEVERTHELESS, we struggle with starting the conversations before we are ill, before we are hospitalized, before we need hospice care. Part of the issue is that we simply don’t have to talk about death much anymore.

Passwords, please. Can I get an amen?

If nothing else, safely providing a list of the seemingly thousands of passwords we all have now is one of the greatest gifts you can give these days. Don’t forget to tell them what the site is for the password; you know how you have spent hours trying to get back into your Netflix account.