Musings from my everyday life...

The band called Timony Naughts broke up in 1998 and "Now or Never" was the last song we ever composed and recorded together. It was me on keys, my ex-brother in-law Danny on guitars, my friend Dan on bass and his friend Will on drums.

Here Dan and Danny are sharing the vocal duties as well...

Leave it to Ubermen Pierce Morgan, James Woods and Jordan Peterson to complain about a Gillette ad extoling that men become more sensitive towards the bullying of other males as well as the sexual harassment and demeaning of women.

Well, here is ex-Marine Jesse Dollemore setting these right-leaning knuckleheads straight with a good ol' fashioned serving of decency and common sense...

Live-in maid Cleo does her best to tend to an upper-class family living in the Mexico City neighborhood of Roma. Set in the 1970’s, this film focuses on her deceptively simple life.

Director Alfonso Cuaron films his vision in a beautiful black and white which gives this artistic little feast a slightly melancholic feel. Things begin slowly with the novice actress playing Cleo giving an earnest and realistic performance which sets the scene for what transpires as the story develops.

This is Cuaron's ode to the women of his childhood and it is as understated as it is poignant.

See it on Netflix before it disappears.

Headphones are a must here...

Today was an interesting day. I knew I was going to spend the entire day as Joanna and go to three appointments: my car dealer for a small repair at 8 am, a scan at the hospital at 10 am, and finally at 3 30 pm to attend the presentation and cocktail which followed. This would be the most socially active day I have ever had as a woman in my entire life.

At the brief car appointment (for a broken VW front hood medallion) Vanda and Alexandra spoke to me for a bit while I waited. After a number of years as a client, they know me fairly well and the conversation flowed as it always does with them. In no time at all, I was on my way. For the record, I have only ever been there as Joanna so no surprises.

Next was the Montreal General Hospital appointment for my leg which I felt would be silly to go back home and change for. Yes, my medicare card says male and what of it? It is after all the 21st century so I presumed the staff would have gotten with the program. If not, some baby boomer wou…

Teresa May's Brexit plan was soundly defeated in the British parliament and so it's back to square one.

Half the country thinks leaving the EU is a mistake and the other half thinks that Britain can go it alone in a bid to regain some measure of autonomy in a world where it is increasingly difficult to do so. Those who pine for things as they were: i.e. a more homogeneous (read white) and traditional former empire don't seem to realize that this is not possible. The entire world is becoming a more mixed global village where borders are also becoming increasingly harder to define.

To be sure, there are still vast cultural differences in many parts of the world but western Europe has seen so much emigration from the African continent, India and the middle east in particular that you cannot reverse that reality. The face of these nations is going to be irreverisably changed.

America faces that same reality where Hispanic, Asian and middle east cultures are converting the land…

For those of you who, for some bizarre reason, have never visited Jack Molay's excellent Crossdreamers website, here is a great time to start.

The latest article deals with the dreams and sexual fantasies of non-transgender people and helps show us even more how much of a complex mosaic humankind is.....

http://www.crossdreamers.com/2019/01/more-than-one-third-of-non-transgender.html?m=1

Sexual thoughts can confuse you for a time. They may even make you think that you are a deviant.

It took me a long time to understand that my identity was not solely defined by these feelings and they were simply part of the experience of being trans. I needed to dig deep down to realize that even as the libido went down, the gender identity only grew in significance and not the other way around. Remember that you cannot be separated from your sexuality because it is an intrinsic aspect of who you are.

Having a male body and either a full or partial female identity only serves up a cocktail of confusion which can lead you to erroneous conclusions; it can even make you question your sanity. But as I discovered, the more I became accepting of my identity, the more relaxed and at ease with myself I became. This signaled to me that I was on the right track.

Today there is at least a basic understanding of what makes me tick even if that does not include a perfect roadmap to my creation as…

I’ve been reflecting recently on some of the ideas of the great philosophers like Spinoza, Pascal and Sartre and have been featuring those short vignette videos on their thinking. Life is very confusing and religion can provide some of us with a cushion to quell our fears and give us that guarantee that St Peter will be waiting for us at the pearly gates when it’s our turn to cross over.

In truth we don’t know anything about what is going to happen to the energy that makes us who we are, and the only thing I have succeeded in doing is using logic to convince myself that there is massive intelligence behind creation. There is also a great will on the part of humankind to instill peace and harmony to our existence which seems always on the brink of some form of collapse before stepping away from the precipice.

Hence, the simplistic religious belief of my childhood has morphed into a kind of spirituality that blends my scientific education with observations on human behavior which can in…

There's also nothin' like Randy Rainbow...

Here is pretty much what I am going to wear for this week's presentation. I have decided to go with my chunky heeled pumps instead because they are in style and because they are really comfy.

Enthusiasm does wane somewhat with age but there is a bonus: The worry and stress over trivial things also diminishes.

The key as we get older is to maintain a level of excitement for new life experiences while avoiding becoming jaded. This is difficult to do and I can see myself potentially falling into this trap. After all, we have seen quite a bit by the time we are in our fifties.

My challenge will be to rejuvenate my attitude with a change of career and life focus. Let’s see how well I can do this.

Oh how ELO loved the old Hohner Clavinet. I remember trying them out at Steve's music store when I was about 15; before I bought my first synthesizer some years later.

Love the cacophony here in the "A Day in the Life" type orchestral ending...

Giving myself permission to be girly took me a long time but it shouldn't have because it's fun to be a girl.

Enjoying putting on a dress and heels and doing my makeup isn't something to be apologetic about and something my friend Sherry has been trying to drill into my head for a long time. I enjoy being a girl; there I said. I'm also darned good at it because it has always felt perfectly natural. The more I have relaxed into that reality the more women see just another woman next to them. That is a sacrilegious and shameful thing to say for a non-trans person but I just happen to be trans.

I am never misgendered; not on the phone and not in person because I know I am a girl. That confidence is primordial to your ability to blend in. That, and more than a bit of practice.

Being a woman isn't about exaggerated femininity. It is about style and grace and carrying yourself as a feminine entity. You can be wearing a white T-shirt and jeans and still very much convey …

After its first year this little blog was averaging 4,000 page views per month and today it flirts with just under 20,000. I want to thank the readers who come here, hopefully find some solace in my words and sometimes even give me their feedback which only encourages me more.

Much has changed since that first post in July of 2012. Back then I was 49 years old and confused about what being trans meant for me. I didn't know how to make room for my own nature and how to fit it comfortably into my daily existence after having tried to reject it for so long.

It turns out that we can more than thrive as transgender people and we can even be happy about our difference. The world has changed dramatically since I began writing and it is changing still. The people who would see us go back into the shadows are losing their fight to the forces of kindness and understanding that light the way for the majority of humanity.

You can find your internal strength and be a vocal advocate because the…

Please watch this because it is powerful...

"Vice" is about the machiavellian Dick Cheney. It covers his history from Wyoming power company linesman to his tenure as the vice president of the United States who held the most power in that nation's history.

I saw it this afternoon with an old friend and enjoyed it although it can be taxing because of its expansive reach in trying to cover so much ground in just over two hours. Christian Bale does a stupendous job here incarnating the man who caused so much chaos over his time in office and that alone may be the price of admission.

We are all fragile creatures at heart and perhaps Mr. Cheney, with his brooding and mysterious air, kept his cards closer to his vest better than most. Politics is shown here in all its messiness and backroom maneuvering and the verdict is clearly that this man was guilty of offenses which impacted the lives of countless people. A country was invaded which was not the main culprit in the 9/11 attacks. We all know this well in retrospect.

H…

The aliens are blind but they can hear you.

A Quiet Place is a dystopic science fiction thriller with a lot of style. It follows the life of one family as it tries to survive without making a sound.

Watch it and enjoy the heart stopping moments with incredible cinematic style to boot.

Highly recommended and on Netflix. One of the best of this genre I have seen.

The right will always be on the wrong side of history.

When it comes to progress for transgender people, things continue to improve as the newer generations embrace tolerance and inclusivity. The more this happens the more we will see a much truer portrait of humanity and its diversity. There is no place in this world for fearmongering or prejudice but that will never stop certain groups from trying to uphold the view that to protect some factions of society we must deny others their rights. This is both dangerous and backward thinking.

I have analyzed the way the right works and thinks; by fearmongering through propaganda meant to reach the lower common denominator voter, they count on misinformation being the thing which keeps these people in the dark. The Republican party of today, for example, is the most sinister in its history and yet is not the only political force in the world which teaches that injustice serves the public interest.

Ultimately, change comes through some level…

Next Wednesday should be an interesting day.

I have a short car appointment, a scan at the hospital for a right leg which has some nerve damage and finally a late afternoon presentation for potential investors that Patricia is doing followed by a cocktail.

The entire day will be spent as Joanna.

It could be seen as the bravest I have ever done except it no longer feels that way since I already know it will go well; I have tested those waters countless times now. Even my first appointment for my nerve pain with the neurologist which ultimately exposed my painted toe nails, was ho-hum as I cautioned her jokingly in advance that she would see I was transgender. For her it was nothing she hadn’t seen or heard before.

The hospital staff next week at the scan will be equally unfazed.

My life has fallen into a normal pattern which works for me and no one else which is the beauty in it. There is no yardstick to measure it against and that is what makes it magical.

Yesterday I bought a dark …

I already know the answer to this question but how many of you have lived lives which to date aligned with expectation? It should be a small minority.

Most of us have been surprised with both pleasant and unpleasant events which have served as milestones for the next segment of our journeys. We have seen deaths, divorces, job losses but also financial windfalls, wonderful friendships made from unexpected incidents and children born who were perhaps not planned but gave us a sense of purpose.

Those events were instrumental in giving us pause or signaled a new entry point into a side road we had never considered taking. Life would have been boring without them because even those lumps we took have helped forge our characters and steel our resolve to grow as humans.

It is a shame that most of the revelation of the value of surprise is discovered later in life rather than at the outset; at least this was the case for me. I have for some time now reflected on the significance of the unplan…

A well deserved win for a wonderful performance. Now you have to see Green Book...

As I write this I am waiting with my daughter to see if she becomes a juror in a second degree murder trial. She is only 20 years old but in Quebec you just need to be 18 and over and on the voters list. I wanted to accompany her to see how this process works.

She is currently taking online courses with DreamWorks animators to continue her progression as a digital animator. Maybe that will be enough to get her exempt; we'll see.

Regardless, it's going to be a long day.

Trump has painted himself into a corner.

With a Democrat controlled House and no popular support for a wall that is more monument to ego than effective tool for curbing illegal immigration, things promise to get uglier before they get better.

Ironically, TSA agents responsible for helping to surveil the most dangerous points for illegal entry are not showing up for work because they aren’t getting paid. Some citizens are not getting their food stamps, garbage isn’t being collected in national parks and there are other much larger offenses taking place while the government is in shutdown.

When you have the temperament of a man-child you aren’t likely to listen to reason and Trump’s ego is bigger than his concern for people who can’t pay their mortgages. "Turtle boy" Mitch McConnell isn’t about to advance matters either despite promising to sign a Republican bill to leave the government open. The GOP tied its fortunes and abandoned its dignity when it accepted Trump as a lead…

What my friends are telling me is correct and I know it. I have been left with incredible sourness towards relationships because I poured so much energy into my two major ones. Still, by telling me I should stop regaling in negativity they're probably right.

The fear of getting hurt again plus having to squeeze myself into a box to fit into someone else's idea of who I should be is what brings me to the resignation that we are probably best left to our own devices if we want to achieve a balance. Most of us have trouble in the area of romance and the added complexity we bring to the table only forces you into a tightrope scenario where a move too far in either direction sees you fall into a chasm. Hence, I cannot offer you any words of wisdom here because I cannot even help myself. I seem to have come to a place of resolution where things only work if I am alone.

These well-meaning people offering me their input don't know what it is like to be us and how much more layered…

Le plateau Mont Royal is one of my favorite sectors of Montreal. Birth place to Leonard Cohen and Mordechai Richler, it boasts plenty of clothing boutiques, book shops, cafes and restaurants. If you are looking for a place to browse or meet friends on a terrace, this is the place to be in the summer.

Here is a photo taken in the winter during one of my recent walks.

The more dressing becomes routine the more its luster is reduced which I very much like. You focus more on how you feel instead of what you wear. Yes, you like to be presentable but you also just want to blend in to experience the world as yourself. That person I present as isn't a caricature of a woman but instead as much a fleshed out version as possible; the image of who I would be had I been born as one.

At 56 years of age, I am more than okay with living between the genders and have made my peace with it. It is also something I might have wanted to discover earlier on in my life. Joanna gets around the world every day for a while but she is not put back entirely into her box because she lives within me always. To borrow a reference from Jung, the animus have been completely fused into one being who is entirely and completely whole.

Our personhood is certainly more than about gender and its presentation but it is also an aspect which cannot easily be ignored. That impetus to t…

I've made a recent discovery: I've been using the wrong shade of foundation. It wasn't an awful choice but just a tad too yellow and by switching one shade over it made all the difference. One of the young women who works at at Sephora noticed and helped me to realize it. Halle also mentioned it during our lunch so this was a call to action.

However I had already bought another Sephora number 31 and so I crossed my fingers upon returning the next day that I could exchange it for a number 30 without having the bill.

I was greeted at the door and I explained my dilemma.

"Do you have your beauty insider card? With that we can verify your purchase and there will be no problem"

Sure enough I had the card and was so happy because otherwise it was $25 I wouldn't let go to waste and be forced to use the foundation.

I got the right shade, thanked the young woman at the cash and the one who had greeted me at the door and I was on my way.

Mission accomplished.

My son wanted to visit his grandfather’s grave and going there made me experience a fit of nostalgia. I hadn’t been there in close to 20 years because I don’t think I will find anything special by standing in front of a headstone. The legacy of my father lives in my memory which is the best place to reach out to it when I need to.

He died 24 years ago this month and driving to the cemetery made me think how fast time flows and how we are amazed when we realize how many years have passed when it doesn’t feel that way. My son will experience the same thing when he gets older but for now he is embroiled in that part of his life where he is building his psyche for the future. He is in that stasis where a foundation has yet to be built so you can look back one day and realize you have a wealth of knowledge you can rely on.

For now, we still have coffees and talk about where he is before I lose him for a period. He will begin to test his mettle and possibly find someone he can be close to a…

I read somewhere that men and women are 98% the same biologically which begs some questions.

Is an XY individual with androgen insensitivity syndrome not a woman? Here is a person who looks, sounds and grows up perfectly female who is technically genetically male. What about an intersex person are they male or female or both? Is our gender identity determined by looking down at our genitals or is it contained between our ears and if so, is it more a question or nature or nurture?

It is easy to simplify this subject and forget that are there are many existing anomalies and permutations that society would rather ignore to suit it's own needs. But it is not reality to think in terms of perfect uniformity because it is not how nature truly works. I challenge you to find me an example where that is the case but I know you will instead find there is much more diversity than first meets the eye. If you are part of that diversity, it's time to stand up and be counted.

There is still s…

Alexandria Ocasio Cortez was interviewed on 60 minutes and reminded everyone of how America used to tax using a marginal rate structure. For example, both FDR and Kennedy taxed earners who made over a certain amount of money (typically in the millions) at between 70 and 90% on the amount above that threshold. This is how the country was able to build its infrastructure between 1930 and 1950.

Today that top marginal rate is only 39% which is what is helping to feed income inequality. So now watch Kyle Kulinski express his disgust at the lack of education because a big hike to the old level would today only impact about 16,000 of the top earners in the country. But the right blew some arteries by either forgetting history or being incredibly disingenuous when they saw her interview.

You have to love Kyle's indignation here because he is so gob smacked that people don't know what a marginal tax rate means and yet criticize her for being a commie....

Watch Peterson try to make a confusing argument here connecting rape laws being pushed by the left through the #metoo and other movements and traditional views of marriage on the right which strongly discourage abortion.

The stringing together of his argumentation is flimsy and awkward as he expounds in his usual blowhard and haughty manner in front of knuckleheads Charlie Kirk and Trump Jr both of whom are clearly befuddled.

It's actually quite funny...

Liberating gender expression and sexuality is to many, still to this day, akin to giving a child a loaded gun. The institutions which depend on the rigid structures of the past for their survival will not give up those sacramental beliefs without a fight. The model of the man and woman having relations solely to procreate is for many that standard ideal which must not be trifled with.

While not actively promoting we encourage society go to excesses to escape this model, it would be wise to liberate alternative forms of gender and sexual expression and normalize them for no other reason than they are real. They have simply been hidden from sight for fear of reprisal from a hypocritical society which did not want the truth to be exposed.

When I first began my career, my married boss was suddenly confronted with his wife leaving him for a woman. He later discovered that she had been a lesbian all along but simply wed to maintain the respectable facade and meet expectation. Some years lat…

That advice video I posted yesterday dealt with a letter from an older trans person coming out which is always frought with huge uncertainty.

Once you have lived many decades in a role that aligns with your birth sex, making any kind of announcement can be akin to throwing a live hand grenade into a room. Your family members may have had no inkling of your true identity and this feels to them like a betrayal. No one is more likely to feel this way than the spouse who thinks she knew her husband.

At this point, coming out can be a Catch 22 scenario where every move in the direction of authenticity is a distancing from a family who will feel naturally betrayed. Things can get ugly and complicated and the trans person may find themselves entirely alone after the dust has cleared. No advice can help solve this situation simply because it will pit the desire of the person to be themselves against the wishes of a family who will likely at first resist such drastic change. That tug of war ca…

Ethan David Loch has been blind from birth and yet he is a piano virtuoso. He began to play the instrument before he could talk and is a testament to the power of overcoming a disability and excelling in spite of it.

Here he is brilliantly performing a Chopin Etude in Poland of all places...

Contrast self compassion with self esteem for they are not the same.

Self esteem involves comparison with others and says: I am okay in spite of not having achieved something. Self compassion, on the other hand, is about forgiveness of self and giving oneself a break when we fail.

I think this is a lovely resolution for 2019 and better than going to the gym to lose those few extra pounds.

Self compassion is what we might want to strive for this year because as our own harshest critics we can find an oasis in this wonderful place. As Alexander Pope said;

"To err is human; to forgive, divine"

Hence I will try and work on the divine and practice forgiving myself for my natural failings as a human. I will make self compassion a part of my self improvement in 2019.

We are on our own case about everything we do and spend hours castigating ourselves for so many things we do not always have perfect control over. Our lives are complicated enough as they are so we can use that extra b…

I can personally really relate to the lyrics of this great song...

I would hate to have this happen to me: to have my life's work be peer reviewed, found to be lacking and then find myself relegated to social media defending it in a last gasp effort to retain legitimacy. This is what has happened to Ray Blanchard and I almost feel bad but then, when I consider the intent behind the effort, I don't.

You see, there is sufficient evidence in the form of tweets and interviews that reveals a clear disdain for transgender people and yet, despite his persistent efforts, we continue to thrive and gain more positive notoriety as time goes on. The reason is simple: we are nice people who just happen to be different. We are not deviants or perverts and, for the most part, we are highly intelligent. Some have found that our average IQ exceeds that of the general population.

So yes, Blanchard's last gasps on Twitter strike me as a way to at least not lose whatever few converts he has. The problem for him is that, as more people get to know us, the les…

When I informed my son today of my decision to not medically transition he seemed genuinely surprised. This was good news for me because it seemed that he had accepted the possibility that I would without issue. I do plan to leave my options open for some type of social transition or simply continue to live part time as I am now.

It confirmed how supportive of me my kids are, and also how logical my son was for wondering why in heaven's name anyone could use the mental illness label on us. He couldn't understand it until I reminded him how the world works: people intent on discrediting something will use any means possible irrespective of the weakness of their argumentation. In other words, belief becomes stronger than rationality. He just looked at me and shook his head.

Did I mention I have a very intelligent son?

History shows us that looking after the population in your own backyard is conducive towards keeping the social peace. We can look to examples such as the French and Russian revolutions, where justice was not served and revolt was an inevitable result. This typically happens when the populace has arrived at a critical junction where it feels there is no other alternative.

Thus, the lesson we should draw is that taking a short sided view where only a small portion of the people are content, to be a recipe for failure.

Unfortunately this is where the US is currently headed with GOP policies which enrich the 1% and nothing flows down to the rest. But even when centrist democratic governments are in power the result is much the same because they are just a less radical version of the Republicans minus the religious fruitcakes and outright racists.

Implosion is an ugly affair where you reach critical mass and that 1% can no longer rely on serfdom since those working stiffs cannot adequatel…

Love of self is mired in complexity.

We are indoctrinated from a young age that much of what is instinctive is to be thwarted and suppressed which might segue us into questioning ourselves about our value. If we are fighting back what is natural and that impetus is considered aberrant, it will be more difficult to instill love of self.

We trans people aren't the only ones affected by this problem. All human beings are encouraged to jettison their natures so they can fit into preordained boxes. Over time, our job is to break free of those confines and find ourselves again as we once were.

It is unfortunate that these artificial dictates are responsible for so much suffering in the world because we arrive as such pure and joyful beings. The insecurities and fear of others is what plunges us into doubting our natures and abandon them as pure folly rather than to cherish them as the gentle imprint of God.

I went to see Green Book last night which is an excellent film. Set against the backdrop of early 1960's America, it tells the true story of the relationship built between a rough and tumble Italian bouncer and driver and a cultured black pianist during a time of civil unrest.
Tony is hired to escort his virtuoso musician through his concert tour of the deep south and things happen which encourage them to bond. They are two men with distinctly different backgrounds and yet they find a way to communicate and eventually become friends.
The Green book refers to the hotel guide for black men which listed where they were welcomed to stay while travelling in the south. During parts of the film I was cringing in my seat from the sheer prejudice and stupidity.
The movie is a must see and deals with the complexity of race relations in the US during that period in its history. It does so with great subtlety while covering the stories of these two men. It is a must see and hopefully also an Osc…

Since this blog's inception I have never posted a picture of myself in male mode until now. The photo below was taken a couple of years ago during a construction site visit.

Today I had a wonderful lunch with Halle and the subject of my going back and forth in presentation came up. If she sees this post she will now have a small glimpse of the other side and no I wasn't in a bad mood that day :)

Romantic love as we know it today is not that old. In the not too distant past, marriages were more like arrangements where two people joined to increase their chance of prosperity. Many of these unions were arranged and before these children had reached the age of puberty, some were already betrothed to be wed. The families had a mutual interest in these marriages and at the highest levels of power included access to the thrones of Europe. At the lowest levels, they could be a way out of poverty.

But as wealth began to be more evenly distributed among the population, the idea of choice became possible. People could wait for the person they were drawn to rather than concern themselves only with economics or power interests. Love became in a way democratized like it never had before.

Of course as we well know, these unions were not necessarily more successful in the long run and, in highly patriarchal societies, women were left vulnerable to the infidelities of men who had grown weary …

I've got two great kids. They are both doing well, are polite and secure in who they are. I've been talking to them about life since they were small and I think its helped them to be realistic about things without dampening their enthusiasm. They are both tolerant of other people and accept me exactly as I am. They also understand this subject fairly well and ask questions freely on occasion which I am more than happy to answer.

Therefore, it makes me ill every time I hear about children disowning a transgender parent with the caveat being that I would expect that person to be forthcoming and take their time coming out. However, if they expect to have instantaneous approval after keeping this a secret from their children they should give their heads a good shake. Unfortunately, I still read about this kind of scenario on occasion.

The reality is that we can be just as self serving and are not immune to being as callous as the rest of the population and, expecting people to get…

For that January presentation I think I am going to go fairly conservative and somewhat corporate looking. I will also be wearing those new shoes I recently purchased..

Yes it's baby talk but it's a hell of a nice and fun little tune...

This blog is increasingly focusing on independence of thought and liberation from societal oppression because I believe this is the key to our mental health as individuals. The better we learn to discern and filter the everyday irrational in our lives, the more healthy our mental state will be.

Much of what we have been taught as children and adolescents were simply customs passed on to us from previous generations and examining them under the magnifying glass of our concious psyches is probably a very healthy thing to do. I am not referring here to obvious things regarding public safety but of more obscure and strange religious and secular myths which have burrowed their way into our collective concisousness as dogma when in fact they are not.

That liberation of spirit brings with it a whole host of benefits but primarily it frees the mind from needless pressures which are, at their root, embedded in irrationality. Anytime we are confronted with such emphatic pronouncements, we shoul…

For certain, there can be great comfort in being in the right relationship but there can also be a considerable amount of suffering when one is not. Each state has a beauty and while we are single we can still be romantics and imagine the kind of person who could walk hand in hand with us through life.

While we are on our own, our image of that individual may be carved out in our minds but we don't pine for them; instead we allow life to work organically while we develop and improve ourselves as individuals.

Then, when your paths cross by happenstance one day, we will be that much more apt to recognize them. We remain open to that rare spiritual connection and things may come on their own.

And then again, they may not...

I want you to reflect on something. I want you to think about your uniqueness and the fact that there is no one else like you in the entire world. This is a wonderful thought because it allows you to realize that in spite of even having been raised in the exact same environment as someone else, there is still such incredible difference between us all. We are as individual as the snowflakes falling from the sky.

I find comfort in that thought and, at this point in my life, I focus on what makes me who I am.

We should all find solace in the reality that the sequence of events that formed us, are as entirely unique as are the ideas and lessons we drew from them. Thinking this way allows you to get off the merry-go-round of societal validation and look inwards to draw energy from the core of your being. Because tending to that core then allows you to be a better human being to others. If your own garden has been looked after, you can now help someone else with theirs.

There is such great…