I am participating in 31 Days of Five Minute Free Writes 2019 (all of my submissions can be found here).
Today’s prompt is: DEEP
There are so many “commemorative days” lately. Apple pie day, selfie day, best friends day … the list is endless.
Today is #DayOfTheGirl and #NationalComingOutDay. It’s probably many other “special” days as well, but these two are on my personal and professional radar screen at a prominent place.
I posted a picture taken in 2011 when my daughter, Tenley, and I went to Guatemala with Unbound (with was Christian Foundation for Children and Aging at the time). We first met Estela there. She’s a girl (a young woman now all these years later) who we sponsor. Our monthly contribution helps her large family with expenses related to food, clothing, education — whatever they need in a country where work and sustenance are inconsistent.
Our relationship with Estela is proof that you can deeply love someone you’ve only met once (and we would love her if we had only ever seen a picture — it is a true blessing that we got to meet her and her family in person.
For National Coming Out Day, I’m reading account after account among my friends about the deep self-evaluation they did before deciding to talk with their friends and family about being gay. (Or about the deep self-evaluation they’re still doing as they try to decide what to do.) I feel strongly about supporting these people in their walk. If life has taught me anything, it is that their orientation is not about me.
Wife of one, Mom of two, Friend of many. My pronouns are she/her/hers.
It’s definitely not about us! I too support all my LGBTQ+ friends!
It’s the least we could all do for each other.
I don’t care who makes your heart bound,
or with whom you share your bed,
’cause when hell is coming down,
everybody be bleedin’ red.
If you want some pronoun special,
I’ll remember it if I can,
but memory’s a cracking vessel
wielded by a dying man.
If you want to wear a dress
half-hidden by patrician beard,
I may laugh, I’ll confess,
no offense, but it looks weird.
And who harms a hair upon your head,
he will wish that he were dead.
I miss you, Andrew. Thank you for this.