Essays
1090 results
Page 5
Spending the winter holidays alone? You’re not the only one.
The joy of going solo
We often make solo holidays sound like a problem to be solved, instead of an opportunity for personal enjoyment, reflection, and renewal free of others’ expectations. Melissa Strong shares her traditions.
Essays
4 minute read
One man, his van, and 18 hours: Journey to an orphanage in Kyiv
“I drove and got them.”
Philly composer and essayist Kile Smith was traveling in Germany when he met an electrician with an extraordinary story in the months following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Essays
6 minute read
It’s no big deal to get glasses or treat anosmia. Why was it so hard to face my hearing loss?
A sound realization
Anndee Hochman had no problem getting help when her sense of smell or her sight suffered. But somehow, addressing her hearing loss felt different.
Essays
5 minute read
I had a life-threatening miscarriage in 1979. Would I have survived the same thing today?
Abortion access saved my life
Fredricka Maister suffered a hemorrhage after she became pregnant in the late 1970s. Abortion access may have saved her life. She worries about the dangers pregnant people face today.
Essays
6 minute read
From Philly to Chile: meeting the pandemic in a whole new hemisphere
How to change the sky
After almost two years of sheltering at home, Anndee Hochman flew to Chile, and experienced a very different response to the pandemic there. What made the difference, and why is it important to witness?
Essays
5 minute read
School reunions in a pandemic make us wonder what could have been, but are we looking in the wrong direction?
The universe inside
A pair of school reunions this year, plus emerging from the shutdowns of the pandemic, restarted Michelle Chikaonda’s habit of wondering who she would be in an alternate universe. But this time, something is different.
Essays
5 minute read
Why a trip to Kentucky’s Creation Museum makes me worry about Pennsylvania’s future
Because the Bible says so
Nowadays, Kentucky’s Creation Museum is starting to feel awfully familiar to the Christian battleground looming in Pennsylvania, thanks to far-right politicians like Doug Mastriano. Rob Laymon considers.
Essays
5 minute read
A walk in the woods, with the wrens, makes me wonder: if things were simpler, when?
Where do house wrens go home?
A photo of a common bird gives flight to Kile Smith’s thoughts on technology and gratitude. Were things really simpler “back then”? What do we witness nowadays, and how?
Essays
5 minute read
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When your disability is often invisible, it can be hard to claim your identity
Living with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome
Journalist Daralyse Lyons was living with the symptoms of a rare connective-tissue disorder long before she had a word for it, but her official diagnosis led to an important life decision.
Essays
4 minute read
As a retired librarian who loves to read books, I’m all for giving kids screen-time
Welcome to iPad Land
As a bookworm kid who became a librarian, Roz Warren used to assume screens were bad news for youngsters. But now she takes a different view.
Essays
4 minute read