Breaking Up With Our Stuff

Something about the start of a new year makes me want to clean closets and go through boxes. I want to get rid of the accumulation, par down, and simplify. Each year, I get rid of a little more as my priorities evolve. Not long ago, my husband and I emptied a tall file cabinet in the garage. We hadn’t examined the contents in years. Old work …

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My Ancestors Owned Slaves

Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding, for the gain from her is better than gain from silver and her profit better than gold. Proverbs 3:13-14 My ancestors owned slaves. It is an uncomfortable truth that has nothing to do with my lived experience. Yet it is my heritage, unknown to me for most of my life. I want to believe these forebearers were kind masters. That they treated their few slaves as workers rather than property. Even so, there is no getting around the fact that they were the masters. These God-fearing Christians somehow thought it was ok, even necessary, to own other people. When they died, they included these enslaved people …

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