Since it’s July, I’m continuing the theme of freedom! Summer Freedom It seemed as if it took way too long for the final bell to ring in the start of summer. I joked around with my students and asked them about their summer plans. Many of them offered to go to Alaska with me, ‘just …
Kate Motaung
Share Your Secret and Save Someone’s Life
Keeping Family Problems a Secret Three years ago, when our youngest daughter agreed to co-write a series with me on her mental health journey, I felt trepidation. Would telling our family secret—that we suffered from a mental illness—change people’s opinions about us? Sure, blog readers and close family friends already know that our family had …
Do We Adapt to Injustice From Lack of Awareness?
May We Never Adapt to Injustice The name Trayvon Martin brings an instant image of a young man looking out from the hood of his sweatshirt with soulful eyes. We know the facts—a young black man walks through an ethnically diverse neighborhood when a vigilante half-Hispanic man shoots and kills him during an ‘altercation.’ Twenty …
When I’m Stuck at a Genius Bar Miles From Home
Stuck at the Bar I’m stuck at a Genius Bar waiting for my scheduled 6:15 Genius to show up and magically solve my problems. He shows up at 6:50. I struggle to remain patient and civil when he informs me that he can’t fix my computer tonight. They don’t have batteries for my computer in …
How to Turn a Burden into Blessing
A Turn in the Trail The trail twists and makes another turn, I lift my eyes, hoping to see the narrow, wooden building perched on the edge of a cliff. Three-mile Resthouse seems further away than the sign had promised when I left Indian Garden. I leaned on my hiking poles, hoping to ease the …
How to Release Racism From Your Life
Release. Relinquish. Give up. A furor on the campus of a small Christian university has brought home, once again, the power of ignorance to hurt and shame others. The scenario? Five students with facial masks (apparently charcoal masks), had their photo snapped. The owner of the phone posted the photo on Snapchat and added the …
What Happens When You Settle for a Theory Without Investigation?
Never Settle for a Lack of Knowledge The whole Flat Earth Theory started me thinking about how, throughout history, people have espoused theories without testing them for truth—and ended up hurting other people. Take the theory that North America only had a few people living on it in the 1400s and needed a new race …
Five Routines to Deepen Your Spiritual Life
Routines Build Relationships Face it, without routines in relationships, the relationship would slowly dry up. Back in the days before Internet, when Pedro and I first started dating, we wrote to each other on a daily basis during the long summers we spent apart. Those letters represent a routine of communication that built our relationship. …
The Perfect Prescription for Tired
What Wears Me Out Tired creeps into my bones. Projects. Meetings. Frustrating reports that I have to do and re-do because the manual doesn’t give clear instructions. Grading papers. More meetings. Preparing for classes, but always just one step ahead of the students. Did I mention meetings? People wear me out. Cold, dry days and …
Regret is the Piranha in My Soul
The Piranha of Regret Regret eats away at the soul, nibbling tiny piranha bites from memories. Unlike the murky waters of the Amazon, though, regret lives solo in the fish tank of our souls. Woulda, shoulda, coulda, form relentless chanting as we shake our memories over the tank. Envisioning different outcomes if only we had …
