The Musings of a Latte Queen: Narratives of Everyday Life

 This is Ash Wednesday. For a lot of Catholics and Anglican Christians, it begins the holy season of Lent. We remember we are but dust and to dust we return, ashes to ashes.  It is a somber reminder of our humanity and the finality of life. We are a mere breath. Today, as a Hospital Chaplain Resident, I am imposing ashes on patients, family, and staff. It is a visible marker of a shared faith and belief. We look with anticipation to the finished work of salvation on the cross and in eager hope of the resurrection. As my day progressed, I noticed how much hope was in the eyes of the ones giving and receiving this reminder of our existence. It was both a somber moment and a joyful moment. Two things can exist at the same time. Like the world we find ourselves in. Even as it seems like the darkest, certainly the darkest I’ve known in my six decades on this earth. Completely imperfect as a nation, there was still a glimmer of light until the nightmare became reality. We wonder abo...

 When I was a little girl, my father always told me to study history. Not as an official college major, the practical side of him steered me away from the humanities and toward a degree where I, his youngest daughter, would be able to take care of myself. My first degree is in Secretarial Technology (not something they have these days) and my Bachelor's is in Marketing and Management. My father was a Korean War Veteran and keenly remembered what it was like to migrate from his home state of Arkansas to a northern state of Michigan so that he and his siblings could have a chance denied them in the Jim Crow South. My daddy was born the same year as Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr. He even met with him with King came to the Midwest and told my idealistic father who wanted justice, that his kind was needed in the halls were policy is made. So my father took that path, earning his law degree and taking it into public service. He ran for office and then, finally, settled into what would be hi...