Once Upon a Time in My Oceania

Surrender My past life was a big contradiction. Being told one thing, but seeing it done a different way. Certain things felt as if their very definitions went against each other. Love, for example, was said to be without limits and yet, there were limitations everywhere I looked. Who was deserving of it (no one), who received it (some, but not all). Mercy was taught and said to have been given, but each mistake was scrutinized.  The very moment you were shown grace by an almighty power, then the real war had begun, they told us. Be prepared for a fight, we were warned, because there's nothing more hated than a Christian. I came to find that the list of enemies was long, that it continued to grow, and eventually it became apparent that everyone hated me. Believing that because you are the "peculiar people" that you were hated only isolated a group more. There were restrictions on how we worshipped, who we could worship with, and what we were worshipping about. It wa...

Trigger Warning: child physical abuse They were the biggest set of blue eyes I'd ever seen. I'm watching him closely, but giving him his space as we sit across from each other on the unpadded brown carpet. His tiny pudgy hands push two cars around; one red, the other green. He's nearly three and according to my communities word-of-mouth rules, too old to be in the nursery. But here we are, me in my last teen months eyeing him like a hawk and him, going about quietly playing. He doesn't look odd and for the life of me I don't understand the rumors. There's no way this semi-quiet little boy, making tracks on the floor with matchbox cars is demon possessed.  Suddenly, without a second thought, I chuckle and those big blue eyes find mine again. Caught. This time I just smile when I'm unexpectedly handed a monster truck that was just fished out of a wooden toy box nearby. I remember that play bin. It's been around since I was a child, but rarely I see ...