Empowered Freedom

​Love encompasses time and space. Once you become aware what love is, you can't help but share it with others. It is truly impossible to hate someone when you are filled with God’s love. When you embody love, everything and everyone around you start paying attention. I recall how much I wanted to spend time with my parents. No matter how much I tried, I was always punished for disturbing them. I began to grow confused and angry with my parents whenever my sisters sought for the same attention I did. My parents insinuated that I was jealous. I knew in my heart it wasn’t true. I viewed my younger siblings as helpless as I was. We were all under their jurisdiction. We depended on them for protection, care, support, and provision. Needless to say, I was forced to take responsibility not only for my sisters, but for my negligent parents too. If it wasn’t for the housekeeper, I would have lost all of my childhood completely. Everywhere I went during my childhood, from toddler to adolesce...

​I remember the first day I started school, my mother told me to make friends. I had just lost my two front baby teeth. Sure, I was ridiculed by my classmates, but I wanted to make my mother proud of me in making friends. I was determined to make 1 friend that day. Instead, I was attacked, robbed, and abandoned at the school quadrangle by older male students. Not one single person in my class bothered to call the teacher or helped me.  When I transferred to a different school, I couldn’t bring myself to make a friend. My mother bought me a book written by Dale Carnegie, “ How to win friends and influence people .” Dale said, ”Remember that a person's name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.” I was never good at remembering people’s names so I trained myself to remember people’s faces.  My name was given to me by my paternal grandfather. 麗安 (lì ān) means “Beautiful Peace,” in Chinese. In Mandarin, it is pronounced /lee-ahn/ whereas in Hokkie...

​Today is February 16, 2026. I never would’ve thought that I would be writing this article.  I watched “The West Side Story” yesterday. I was emotionally overwhelmed by the circumstances that ended with tragic events.  I have watched several renditions of “Romeo and Juliet”, but not as heartbreaking as this.  I was raised in a Christian household. A household that should have been founded on moral values, social connections, and loving kindness. My parents were one of the statistics that show being in an abusive relationship. In the United States, this translates to millions of individuals, as studies suggest that 1 in 4 men who claim to be highly religious also report perpetrating violence against their partners.   Regardless of your religious beliefs or cultural background, there are certain aspects of self-awareness one must consider before committing to a long-term relationship.  Who are you? A study showed that a growing fetus in a mother’s womb is ale...