The Aftermath of Friendship Lost

Anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance – I experienced it all as I came to terms with losing my best friend over our differences in belief.

Losing My Religion – Part 5, The Bitter End

The one where Heather naively thinks she can have the best of both worlds, and boy howdy does it not work out that way.

Losing My Religion – Part 4

Have you ever cast a ballot to determine someone’s standing in the church? I participated in the disfellowshipping of one of my best friends, and yet I STILL couldn’t bring myself to walk away from it all.

Losing my Religion – Part 3

It was like I had two personas – the holy churchgoer, and the day-to-day me. I don’t know how Dave put up with me for so long.

Losing My Religion – Part 2

It was time for me to grow up! Move out, get a job, find a good Christadelphian man to be my husband… but it wasn’t quite working out the way I had imagined.

Losing My Religion – Part 1

I heard REM’s hit Losing my Religion for the first time when I was about 11 years old. Although I’d hear it again many times over the next decade, the Sunday in 2004 when it played as I drove to meeting for the last time, it felt as if it had been written for me.

15 Years Ago…

In September 2001, my friend Sarah and I took a trip to Oregon to visit her family, who had just relocated there. It was my first time traveling to the West Coast and my first time on a plane since I was 16. What could possibly go wrong?

The F Word

I’m talking about fear, of course. In going through a stack of paper shoved on a shelf, I found what’s written below. I wrote it a little over 4 years ago, when I was underemployed, drowning in student loans and generally feeling like a loser. You don’t always realize how far you’ve come until you […]

Major Life Influence #1: Being Raised Christadelphian

The first major influence on my life was the religion and associated culture that I was raised in. The group was called the Christadelphians. The name means Brethren in Christ. We also referred to it as The Truth. Here’s what my life was like growing up in that environment.