Historiaphile

It may come as a surprise to some of you that there is such a thing as good confrontation. No, I don't mean intervention, though I do believe this is an extremely important version of good confrontation; I am specifically talking about the type of confrontation that comes when you come to a crossroads with how you feel and someone else feels. I find this usually comes in the form of disagreement in conversation. An extraordinarily oversimplified version of this could be something like, Mac and Cheese tastes better with ketchup v.s. putting ketchup in Mac and Cheese defiles its deliciousness. I actually regularly think this when I listen to Gordon Ramsay say how something should be made and I wrinkle my nose in disgust, wondering how in the world such a thing could be better than the classic super-plain version. I, personally, feel this type of confrontation can generally begin and end on friendly terms, usually jokingly. I think of this as an empty confrontation because usually it...

As a fifteen year old I believed I knew what it felt like, insisted it's what I was experiencing and dealing with. What I didn't understand was that depression was so much more than just being sad. It was more than just wanting a different life and different outcome, more than even the unintentional selfishness that often accompanied the emotions I was feeling. But I believed it to be those things. My life completely changed when I decided to go on a mission. Though I didn't know it, and wouldn't know it for at least 6 more years, my life was finally falling into place. Many things happened when I made that decision. Some of those things include: Meeting the love of my life (another story for another day) Learning that forgiving myself was as important as the hope of forgiveness Learning the joy of quitting my job, for good Learning to give up some comforts for the sake of a greater good Learning to trust in God more than I ever had before  While the expe...