Tag: Wisdom

Apologies, Dear Ones — Living Intentionally

On By Phyllis Argent CastrenIn Living Intentionally, Uncategorized1 Comment

Apologies dear friends, acquaintances, neighbors, lost pets, vendors, insurance companies, politicians, and things that I needed to remember in 2019. I have deleted your emails. My email inbox has for a long time been a file cabinet that never gets sorted. I hang onto letters from friends and prayer requests and photos. Those all seem worthy of saving. I have saved receipts. Possibly important. Regrettably, I also hang onto articles I wanted to refer to someday and then forget. I hang onto blog posts that seem full of wisdom. I hang onto the community garden newsletter and the city newsletter and …

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My Ancestors Owned Slaves

On By Phyllis Argent CastrenIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

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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