Columns

“Let’s see what the fam is doing today,” I mused to myself as I opened my Facebook feed. On Facebook, I’ve been able to reconnect with acquaintances from elementary school. My own family is scattered across the world, and I often don’t know where my son is working. Social media…

Standing at the bathroom mirror, I peer this way and that. Has that scab become smaller? Is there any redness or pain? Any swelling, especially around the edges of my skin graft? Everything seems to be going smoothly. I’m pleasantly surprised. I had my Mohs surgery (for skin cancer…

I was enveloped in a deliciously warm environment, floating as if on a cloud, bathed in warm sunshine. I stretched out my arm, which immediately whapped against the bedroom wall. My luxurious sleep had ended. I reached down and lifted up my laptop from the bottom shelf of my bedside…

It is a truth universally acknowledged that people with cold agglutinin disease (CAD) can’t breathe. However little known the feelings or views of such a person, this truth is so well-fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that people with CAD, because they can’t breathe, will never walk…

The Norfolk pine was well over 6 feet tall. It was top-heavy and too big for the pot. I didn’t have the energy or strength to deal with it. Thankfully, we’d hired a young man, Gari, to work as our gardener as he went to school. Gari’s mother tongue was…

One candle in our Advent wreath is lit before our family’s devotion service begins. Together we sing, “O come, o come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel.” This hymn causes us to remember God’s work and to anticipate God’s kingdom of the future, when we believe the world will be complete.

I heard the music of the calliope before I saw the magical kaleidoscope of colors. Fairs always have their smells: cotton candy, hot dogs, and hamburgers. But my 7-year-old self was enchanted by the merry-go-round. Soon the gaily-colored wooden horses were going up and down as we were twirled around…

I started trembling when I saw the tribal warrior approach with a wicked long spear. Yikes! How can I get out of here? I looked around the room and realized there was no escape. The man and his henchman were in the room with me, while reinforcements stood just outside…

It was totally dark, and I couldn’t remember where I was. I was nice and comfortable in this soft bed with its squishy pillows. I blinked my eyes and remembered: I was traveling back to the U.S. to see my dermatologist. I was in the Ambassador Hotel at Singapore’s Changi…

I sleepily scratched a bug bite on my arm. It felt a bit different from a mosquito bite — perhaps it was from a red ant or a spider. I rolled over and went back to sleep. That afternoon there was a sore the diameter of a pencil on my…