This is the sixth part of a 6-part series chronicling my journey away from religion. If it offends you, I’m sorry, but you really shouldn’t let other people’s experiences trouble you. This is my experience and isn’t intended to discredit your experiences or beliefs in any way. My journey is mine and your journey is yours. I respect them equally.

Part 6: The Final Slice

Although my childhood was irrationally acceptable— I felt included, part of a hand-picked delegation — it left me without a proper education and without a solid sense of self. …

This is the fifth part of a 6-part series chronicling my journey away from religion. If it offends you, I’m sorry, but you really shouldn’t let other people’s experiences trouble you. This is my experience and isn’t intended to discredit your experiences or beliefs in any way. My journey is mine and your journey is yours. I respect them equally.

Part 5: Pulling at the Seams

At 45 years old, I found a lump of cancer. Turns out there were three cancer lumps. I didn’t know it then, but separation from The Body had commenced. For me cancer was not a gift, not a blessing. …

This is the fourth part of a 6-part series chronicling my journey away from religion. If it offends you, I’m sorry, but you really shouldn’t let other people’s experiences trouble you. This is my experience and isn’t intended to discredit your experiences or beliefs in any way. My journey is mine and your journey is yours. I respect them equally.

Part 4: The Real World

One week every summer my siblings and I were sent away two at a time to stay in the country with our grandparents. It took a two-hour backseat car ride to get there, but it was always worth it. Since…

This is the third part of a 6-part series chronicling my journey away from religion. If it offends you, I’m sorry, but you really shouldn’t let other people’s experiences trouble you. This is my experience and isn’t intended to discredit your experiences or beliefs in any way. My journey is mine and your journey is yours. I respect them equally.

Part 3: An Education of Isolationism

Eventually, my father was saved, receiving the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues while at work one day in his truck cab. Meanwhile, my mother drifted away from The Body and the truth. I was too young…

This is the second part of a 6-part series chronicling my journey away from religion. If it offends you, I’m sorry, but you really shouldn’t let other people’s experiences trouble you. This is my experience and isn’t intended to discredit your experiences or beliefs in any way. My journey is mine and your journey is yours. I respect them equally.

Part 2: A Seamless Connection

I was brought up to believe I knew unknowable things. Ideas labeled spiritual and biblical had floating roots for nonbelievers, but for us — god’s chosen people — these truths made me feel larger than myself. …

This is the first part of a 6-part series chronicling my journey away from religion. If it offends you, I’m sorry, but you really shouldn’t let other people’s experiences trouble you. This is my experience and isn’t intended to discredit your experiences or beliefs in any way. My journey is mine and your journey is yours. I respect them equally.

Part 1: I Don’t Believe in God

There must be lives that separate from religion easily, as if they were perforated from the beginning. Mine was not one of them. …

Our older population still has the highest risk of severe disease outcomes

As the COVID-19 vaccine makes its way around the world, questions are still being asked. Even though we’ve been dealing with this virus for over a year, we’ve only had information about the COVID-19 vaccine for a few months.

Initially, front-line healthcare workers and nursing home residents were prioritized to receive the vaccine, followed by older adults age 65 years and above. In some areas, the age to receive the vaccine has dropped to 45 years. …

Awareness embracing respect

LGBTQ Health Awareness Week is March 22–26, 2021.

Although it’s crucial to understand the health disparities of the LGBTQ+ community, awareness goes beyond being knowledgeable that LGBTQ+ individuals experience a higher risk of certain conditions, have less access to health care, and have worse health outcomes than their non-LGBTQ+ counterparts.

When awareness finally embraces human respect, we may find the answers we seek to stop the discrimination and violence, the cultural incompetence, and the lack of proper healthcare coverage.

Awareness is seeing the human behind the eyes of every single person.

1. LGBTQ+ Awareness: Every person has the…