So many moments in life call for courage and grit. Managing a bad medical diagnosis. Absorbing the unexpected news that you’ve just been laid off from the job you’ve loved for years. Having your romantic fantasies dashed by the startling text message informing you that your partner has decided it’s best to part ways. These are […]
This I Believe
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This I Believe New England – Homeless
It’s no secret that both nationally and locally, many people struggle with homelessness. The statistics are staggering and intimidating. In the most recent reports, more than 3,000 people in Rhode Island were considered homeless, nearly one-third of them including families with children. In Massachusetts, more than 20,000 people experienced homelessness during the most recent daily count. Nationally, more than […]
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This I Believe New England – Police Officer Story
All of us know that today’s police officers face unprecedented challenges. They’re on the front lines when mass shootings erupt, first responders when natural disasters strike, and among the first to arrive at the scene following suicides. Police intercede when urban gangs do battle, console victims of domestic and sexual assaults, respond to reports of home invasions […]
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This I Believe New England – Saying Goodbye
February 20, 2019: Mary Murphy All of us have said painful goodbyes to the dearest of loved ones. Sometimes, the poignant farewell is at the cemetery, following a sudden death that had no forewarning. Sometimes, taking leave is slow and incremental, say during a protracted illness and steady decline that eases its way toward final breaths. For survivors, […]
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This I Believe New England – An Immigrant Story
The 24/7 news cycle that saturates our lives is filled with headlines about immigration. We’re surrounded by intense debates, shrill controversies, anger-filled epithets, and, yes, some thoughtful, reasoned reflections and analyses. For many of us, what we know about the complexity of contemporary immigration comes our way by websites, television commentators, newspapers, and wide-ranging radio outlets. What we […]
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This I Believe New England – Painful Images
Sometimes in life we encounter unmitigated horror as we come face to face with the darkest, most macabre events that our world has the capacity to produce. How we cope with life’s tragedies varies, of course. Some of us may be inclined to stare calamity down, stand in its way, and do what we can to mitigate […]
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This I Believe New England – Snow And Ice
Here we are, embarking on yet another New England winter. For some, this stretch of months with early sunsets is filled with dread: frosty temperatures, snow piles to shovel, sluggish car engines, and icy patches to dodge. But for others of us, this wintry mix is the stuff of pure delight, shimmering sunlight bouncing off […]
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This I Believe New England – Lost Keys
The kindness of strangers. Yes, it’s a well-worn phrase which may seem to sound like a cliché. But, when you’re on the receiving end of such kindness, there’s nothing trite or hackneyed about these four words. Sometimes these kindnesses are relatively trivial, say, in the form of a door held open or an assist with heavy packages. At other […]
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This I Believe New England – Books
Books can, and do, change lives. Now there’s a sentence that seems so obvious it’s hardly worth saying. But it is worth saying. Many of us can remember a time when we strolled around a library, scanning the shelves casually for sideway words on a spine that caught our eye and whose insides caught our minds and our […]
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This I Believe New England – Moving Through
In this week’s This I Believe–New England essay, health advocate Rebekah Ham talks about coping with serious illness.
