Category: faith

Written by Alise

Relationship vs. Religion and What Leelah Alcorn’s Suicide Shows Us

I’ve been thinking about Leelah Alcorn a lot over the past few days. It saddens me to no end that yet another transgender person has felt so alone that she believed that her only release was death. I hate that it took her death for her to be seen as the woman that she was.

And I’ll be honest, I’ve been thinking about her mom a lot as well. Thinking about what it’s like to lose a child to suicide and to bear the weight of responsibility for that.

Written by Alise

#Ferguson and Healing Our Nation

Last night I watched the hashtag #Ferguson scroll through my Twitter feed until the wee hours. It’s still scrolling this morning, making it hard for me to tear myself away from social media for the time needed to write this. I saw the live feed I was watching get turned off. I read stories of […]

Written by Alise

Sending hell straight to…well, you know

A few weeks ago, Rich and I met with a couple we hadn’t seen in a long time. We spent a little bit of time catching up, and they offered condolences on Elliott’s death. There were hugs and tears as we shared how hard his loss has been on us individually and as a couple. Then […]

Written by Alise

The Need to Rest

Resting is hard. Last night when my feet swelled up to a somewhat alarming size, Rich asked me to call off work and put my feet up for a day. (Literally. I’m typing this with my laptop awkwardly balanced on my stomach while my feet are on pillows lifting them up over my head. I’m […]

Written by Alise

Your 5-step Method is Pissing Me Off

I’ve been teaching piano lessons for a while now, and like all piano teachers, I have a favorite method book. But regardless of what method you teach, they all give the same basic information to new piano students. Notes to the right get higher, notes to the left get lower. This is how you find […]

Written by Alise

Scarlet is the New White

(This post contains spoilers about the Netflix series Orange is the New Black. Be aware!) I’ve recently been rewatching the Netflix series, Orange is the New Black. I haven’t read the book, but I do love the show. It is funny and heartbreaking and gritty and basically all of the things that I find appealing […]