When COVID lockdowns began, people insisted I was selfish — My son began cutting out horseshoes in the early days of COVID lockdowns. He cut them out of printer paper, cereal boxes, delivery boxes, newspapers, egg cartons, napkins, and toilet paper. Anything he could find. Hundreds of horseshoes every day, until the apartment was overrun with horseshoes. Each horseshoe was…

Get to know more about me with 26 facts from A to Z — I’m late for this party but I figured I’d show up anyway. The truth is I saved this list for a day when I had very little energy or inspiration for article writing and could do something relatively simple. These ABCs are all about me. (un)Lucky You! A is for Australia I grew up…

You might think some of them are really great, I will not hold that against you, go forth and be you, boo. — My apologies to Dr. Seuss. With who I’m playing fast and loose, I would like to think I am very clever, You yourself were such a smart fella. I will not do these things with you, I will not do them with the flu, I will not do any of these, I will…

Thanks be to God for divine accidents — Every morning upon waking, I reach for the light blue and silver mantilla I have by the chair I sleep in, groggily put it on my head, and then reach for my Book of Common Prayer. It automatically falls open to page 302, which are the words used in the…

“It is in dying that we are born to eternal life” — Although there is no real evidence that St. Francis wrote the prayer commonly attributed to him, it’s a prayer that shows the principles of the Franciscans. Whoever prayed it, the words “it is in dying that we are born to eternal life” is a comfort for me. I’m not sure…

Gruesome and brutal things happen a lot in rural Australia — I didn’t particularly care for Nat a good deal of the time, but he had gone to school with me in primary school. He had gone on to the closest high school, and he lived down the road. Nat lived “down the dusty,” which is what we called the one-lane…

It turns out that it’s not meaningless after all — I used to roll my eyes every time I heard or read the Serenity Prayer. I thought it sounded stupid. I couldn’t believe people actually prayed it. The concept of serenity sounded like sweet, flowery words with no meaning, something a person who wanted to teach me how to manifest…

I lied to my new therapist because I was ashamed — Ash Wednesday was the day I began seeing my new therapist. It’s supposed to be a day where Christians acknowledge and meditate on their mortality, and it’s also a day of repentance. The day holds much significance for me. It’s the beginning of the penitential season of Lent. So it…