Birthday Blues I see every birthday as a celebration, but this one was different. My late loved one and I share the same birthday month, and since he had only passed away the month before, it was hard. But there’s a saying about laughter being the best medicine. I’m blessed to be surrounded by people who injected me with laughter and joy, which were the antidotes I needed to combat the grief and sorrow of losing a loved one.
Words Don’t Come Easy In the grief of losing a loved one, how do your heart and mind come together to process the words that need to be expressed for an announcement, an obituary, or a eulogy? Writing those pieces is a profoundly significant endeavor. There’s so much pressure to get it right. How do you find the right words that both mourn them and celebrate them?
You Are Free At Last My Most Precious Vu, this is my last letter to you here on Earth. My Love, we had all wished and prayed for a chance to be by your side at the end. Although we did not get the outcome we desired, we accept with grace knowing you are now in Heaven, no longer suffering, and surrounded by glorious beauty and ethereal love. May you rest in Radiant Peace.
Love is All There Is When faced with the terminal illness of a loved one, what are one’s last acts of love? How far would you go to move mountains for a person even knowing that what you put in won’t save their life, but rather, it is to savor whatever moments are left together here on this Earth. In the journey toward the end, we must know that Love is all there is.
Prison Life in the Time of Coronavirus As the deadly virus takes its toll around the world, it easily makes its way into the dungeons of society – prisons. In the confines of penitentiary life, social distancing and sanitation are impossible. How does one stay hopeful and still find bright spots when you’re living prison life in the time of coronavirus?
Sometimes I Cry When the universe aligns itself, the energy it produces cannot be contained. Two events that are thousands of miles apart, collide during a single moment in time. Your mind doesn’t know it, but your heart feels it.
Love, Forever… In a Tiny Prison Town Sometimes the biggest things can happen in the tiniest places. I discover love and hope in Tennessee Colony, Texas – population 300, and home to 5 of Texas’ toughest prison units.
Let’s Talk About Race Race and Racism are uncomfortable topics. I want to dialogue about the essential role of power in racism and highlight how this power is dangerous when we don’t vote.
My Road Trip To Mississippi With 5 Trump Supporters In this current political climate of divisiveness, Trump’s words and policies are harmful, dangerous, and violent. How do I reconcile my antagonism, anxiety, and agitation about Trump and his supporters when some of those supporters are closest to home?
#WhyIDidntReport My fears of sharing deeply personal experiences have stalled me in the writing of my memoir. It took the courage of strangers to help me finally overcome my apprehensions and anxieties. Let the writing begin.
#SheToo Sometimes justice doesn’t get served. But what can we do when the circumstances are not in our favor? One thing we can do is honor the strength and resilience of our lives by telling our stories.
Vietnam and the Voices of Opposition How do I reconcile powerful “common knowledge” about the Vietnam War and the opposing viewpoints which test what I have been taught all my life?
Death, The Ultimate Teacher What is it that I learned this time when confronted with the death of a loved one?
Nature’s Gifts Oh the glorious gift of a visit from one of nature’s tiniest yet mightiest creatures – the hummingbird.
Bah Humbug? Nah, Hummingbird! Christmas and the New Year – my struggle with tradition, convention, and commodification.
Surviving Hurricane Harvey My parents, the water warriors wading through the flooded streets of Houston.
Love, Loss, and Wishes for My 43rd Birthday Sometimes life is not about becoming but rather, unbecoming
What Stirs My Soul What is there after death?
Guns, Roses, and War I Am a War Child
Me for Mẹ Ode to My Mother
Mass Incarceration is the New Jim Crow Structural discrimination – a lesson from the historical, political, economic, and racial aspects of the War on Drugs
The Iron Cage When rules and regulations take over the human condition, it is no fun to be trapped in the Iron Cage
the obstacle is the way 