Moving Forward, Facing Uncertainty

A Mennonite: My Cultural Background When I was young, I was largely unable to distinguish between Mennonite-specific cultural details, small town life, general Christianity, and the dominant 90s culture. I was told seemingly anecdotal stories of Christians being horrifically oppressed, but didn’t understand how those tales applied to me. I knew some of the foods we ate were culturally specific, and our Christian traditions were somehow more valid than those of outsider Christians. I knew my relatives on both sides immigrated to Canada from Paraguay, but I wasn’t sure where they had come from before then. My top guesses were Russian or German ancestry, but I had no real idea. Greeting card seen at Mennonite Heritage Village Museum My first discovery into the true origins of my ancestors came with the completion of a DNA ancestry kit. I was genuinely surprised to learn my genetic make-up is as equally matched to Dutch as it is to German, with Belgian and Scandinavian in smaller amoun...

Before We Get Into It, Let’s Define Disability Canada’s Federal definition of disability is as follows:                 “Disability is a complex phenomenon, reflecting an interaction between features of a person's body and mind and features of the society in which they live. A disability can occur at any time in a person's life; some people are born with a disability, while others develop a disability later in life. It can be permanent, temporary or episodic. Disability can steadily worsen, remain the same, or improve. It can be very mild to very severe. It can be the cause, as well as the result, of disease, illness, injury, or substance abuse.” - https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/programs/disability/arc/reference-guide.html The World Health Organization goes further to say:                 “ Disability is p...