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You are what you think you are

“Jody” was taught to be a respectful person, to be kind and thoughtful. She loved to laugh, visiting with her neighbors in the classroom, much to the teachers’ displeasure, and everywhere she went. Until the bullying started. It wasn’t directed at her, but she saw the hurt in the other child’s eyes when he was bullied. She tended to stand up in defense of the bullied, drawing attention to herself because “when they pick on me, they leave everyone else alone. And I can ignore them.” When she actually experienced bullying and complained to the bully’s mother, the woman ...

What does 37 minutes have to do with it?

The grandchild, prompted to shut off the TV, came over to me. I had just begun work on a crochet project requested by a daughter. It is small. It won’t take long to make it. “Let’s play games, Memaw,” he said. I have taught him pretty well. He has mastered the strategy of winning Mancala. No, I do not let him win. He beats me fair and square. Pickup Sticks, Trouble, Monopoly, he is a formidable opponent. He is sharp. I didn’t want to set my crochet aside, but I did. We retired to the sunporch where he again defeated me soundly at Pickup Sticks. But we never did finish the ...

Dog days of summer

Here we are, in the midst of what my paternal grandmother called “the dog days of summer.” I don’t think it had much to do with dogs. Actually, the phrase refers to the hottest days of summer. My grandmother was a superstitious Irish woman so there might have been something more to it. But when I think of the dog days of summer, I think of high heat and humidity. I remember headaches when the heat was extreme, and hiding away to read my books when the headaches eased. We know so much more these days. Do you go to your weather app each day to see what you can expect that day? It ...

More older adults struggle with substance use disorder

There is an epidemic we don’t hear much about. There is just no denying that aging has its issues. But for some older adults, things become even more complicated. This issue is substance use disorder (SUD) which often is unintentional, often misdiagnosed and untreated because some of the symptoms mock signs of conditions associated with aging. We will share some information and resources for you to read further. There is a lot more information available now than a decade ago, but there are still questions that need to be answered. According to 2018 data, nearly 1 million adults age ...

Victory Over Temptation, Part 2

I have been writing a series of articles on little temptations that sneak into our lives. The devil had one overall goal for Job, and that was to curse God and die. The devil is trying to test us and tempt us to do the exact same thing, to quit God, to quit the church, and to hate each other. Please refer to the newspaper for my last article.  Temptation number two is not to make friends in the church. We are afraid to make friends because we have been hurt in the past. When we hurt, we don’t forgive (part of my last article). We must understand the greatest commandment of all is to ...

More than just scary

The War on Drugs has an official start date. Actually there are several of them. The first one was June 18,1971. President Richard Nixon declared drug abuse “Public Enemy Number One.” He saw to an increase in federal funding for drug-control agencies and drug treatment, according to “The War on Drugs: History, Policy and Therapeutics – Research Guides” at research.dom.ed Looking to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the war continued with the first wave of the opioid epidemic of overdose deaths involving prescription opioids through the 1990s. In 2010, the ...