Observation on the Journey

Maybe the journey isn’t so much about becoming anything. 

Maybe it’s about un-becoming everything that isn’t really you, 

so you can be who you were meant to be in the first place. 

 Paul Coelho

Sometimes The Cover is Not the Book

There are a lot of people who are confused and hurting right now. We want to believe that people are good, and will help us to live the life we deserve. That is the cover of the book, showing us a glowing future if only we believe. When we are let down terribly, it is embarrassing to have to admit that we were taken in by charlatans. 

If there are people like that around you, please be kind. It is so easy to be taken in by someone selling snake oil. Everyone then needs to work together to make things right and make sure that those who have lied and made fools of us cannot keep doing it. 

The Widening Gulf

It has been a month of revelations - to say the least. 

Some might say it began with a 'swearing in', but for me, it truly began with a church service that went sideways for one entitled group and cut right to the heart of the main issue for the rest of us. 

Jerome Stueart created the work you see here. 

It is called The Gulf of Empathy. Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde asked for mercy and we all know what the response has been. 

Visit Jerome's general webpage or this one for 'merch' related to the painting.

Thank you Cassidy for that link to such a perfect song. We need to show mercy and care for all who are now suffering, no matter how they voted.

Echo Chamber

 Hello... HELLO!! IS ANYONE OUT THERE?? .. outthere.. outthere.. outthere.. 

It has been a while since I set over 430 blogposts to 'draft' status here.. I republished one to see if anyone is out there.. In spite of the statistics, there seems to be nobody left. I might be the last of my kind. 

In 2010 finding blogs and their authors was a lifeline that told me I had family that I could get to know. I started commenting on those blogs. Soon I started my own, to give back a bit of what I could only get from reading what those other like-minded people could say. 

We read and commented. We learned from each other. 

Blogistan was a lovely place that I was proud to be a part of. I mourn its loss. But one can and should only mourn for so long. 

Nothing is New Here

The idea that some people will believe anything is hardly new. Sadly, lives can depend on getting the facts correct. 

People are being told that human gender variance is an idea that has been made-up recently and is being used to dupe the citizenry. Because some who have recently come to power need a soft target, they are making up falsehoods to justify draconian actions. Conflating gender-variant people with criminals, such as pedophiles and rapists, is the real crime here. 

Of course, the people making up stories about us don't really want to get their facts straight. We, who have to deal with gender variance and dysphoria daily, should be able to tell this important part of our story correctly to those who might care to know the truth.

We are not some new idea just made up. Further, we were not rejected or persecuted until fairly recently.

Documented references to gender variance go back to Greek and Roman times. Instead of going on and on citing references I shall let you read for yourself in this peer-reviewed article from Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, 2021, Vol. 23.

The terminology, around trans-related issues, is relatively new, only about 100 years old. Magnus Hirschfeld (1868–1935), a physician who practiced in Germany, founded two organizations committed to the support of homosexuals and sexual minorities. It was Hirschfeld who coined the term ‘transsexual’ in 1923. This word would only catch on three decades later with the publication of the groundbreaking 1966 book The Transsexual Phenomenon by Harry Benjamin (1885–1986).

Enough of the history lesson. Please be assured, we are not deluded or insane. We are a vulnerable minority - an easy target. 

Please, love yourself while doing your best to love others as well. 

Perhaps, In The Fullness of Time...

“Don't let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief shining moment, that was known as Camelot.”

― Alan Jay Lerner

~~~

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,


Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,


What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,


As it fitfully blows, now conceals, now discloses?


Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,


In full glory reflected now shines on the stream;
’

Tis the star-spangled banner; 

O long may it wave
 O’er the land of the free, 

and the home of the brave!

from The Defence of Fort McHenry

Francis Scott Key 1779 – 1843

What It's Like

This poem encapsulates how I have always felt so beautifully. 

~ ~ ~

‘What’s it like to be a woman?”

A little bird whispered in my ear.

‘Is it just like being human?’

Oh it is so much more, my dear.

We are the holders, we are the keepers,

Of the secrets and the truth.

We are the safe place in a storm,

The creator of all youth.

We are the place where life is softest,

We are the colour in the story.

We are the wisdom and the instinct,

Mother Nature in all her glory.

We are the taker of all worry,

We keep it deep within our hearts.

So that others may unburden,

So that great new lives may start.

We are the makers of the home,

Not just the walls but of the spirit.

Bringing everyone together,

Letting love and laughter fill it.

We are sisters, mothers, wives,

So many things in every day.

We are the start of every life,

We are the reason, we are the way.

We are fuelled by intuition,

Call it magic, if you like

We are truly so much more,

Than any words that I could write.

Donna Ashworth

https://donnaashworth.com/