It's been looming since last year about this time and it has only gotten worse as time goes on. Birthdays are a rough time for me. There is something about getting a year older that I have always found disconcerting. This birthday in particular is a big one.
Saturday, May 9, 2015
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Container gardening Fall 2014
I finally got back to my roots today. Literally. I planted my little fall garden on my patio. I had forgotten how happy I feel with dirt in my hands.
.JPG)
Saturday, August 23, 2014
NJ Vacation 2014 Photo Blast
Reality and responsibility have reared their ugly heads again but I am going to mentally revisit my vacation by posting all the beauty I got to enjoy while I was away. I hope you all love it as much as I do!
Monday, August 4, 2014
Friends in high places
I find it amazing how important connections with other people are to a person as anti-social as I am. I have a few childhood friends that started out as friends more out of convenience than because of any deep personal connection. Those friendships have lasted because of our history and in some cases because we have found ourselves on similar paths with similar interests.
Monday, June 16, 2014
Sunday, March 23, 2014
Identity
A friend of mine thoughtfully shared a recent article from The New York Times called The Scientific Quest to Prove Bisexuality Exists (written by Benoit Denizet-Lewis). It is a very long article with no hard science in it, despite the title. It was still incredibly enlightening. I highly recommend that everyone give it a read.
For those of you who are unaware, I am bisexual. It isn't really something I talk about. Like many bisexuals I have never formally come out (I guess this is pretty close, though). My mom knows, most of my friends know. I am selective who I discuss it with because many people are not open to the idea. I have never really felt the need to give myself the label but it is truly what I am.
(Not really sure what bisexuality means? Here is a pretty good definition:
“I call myself bisexual because I acknowledge that I have in myself the potential to be attracted — romantically and/or sexually — to people of more than one sex and/or gender, not necessarily at the same time, not necessarily in the same way and not necessarily to the same degree.”)
I have lived a heterosexual life. With the exception of a short period in my late teens I have been only with men. That fact doesn't mean I am now less attracted to women or inherently more likely to spend my life with men. I am attracted to both, for very different reasons.
"According to the 2013 Pew Research Survey of L.G.B.T.-identified Americans, bisexuals are less likely than gays and lesbians “to view their sexual orientation as important to their overall identity.” That feeds into a belief among some gays and lesbians that bisexuals are essentially fence-sitters who can pass for straight for decades at a time and aren’t especially invested in the L.G.B.T. community."
I can attest first hand to that being true. As human beings we all identify ourselves in different ways. I'm a woman. I'm an intellectual. I'm a hippie. Those are what seem most important to me. I'm a bisexual doesn't even make the top 5. For others, sexual orientation might come first, or second. It might be the major defining factor of your life.
I have not been immersed in the LGBT movement and I was ignorant to the under-representation of bisexuals. This article really opened my eyes to the need for me to embrace my sexual identity and advocate so others can, too.
I feel lucky to have the pool of potential suitors be larger. Loving people regardless of their gender really does feel like a gift.
I will leave you with this last excerpt from the article which resonated the most for me:
“I really wish everyone could experience how extraordinary it is to be able to fall in love with people regardless of their gender,” he said. “I once told a straight friend who couldn’t really understand my bisexuality: ‘Hey, just because you’re incapable of finding the beauty in both genders, don’t hold your deficiencies against me. You have a handicap, I don’t.’ But, somehow, I’m seen as the strange one, the one who doesn’t fit into our obsession with everything being black or white, straight or gay.”
Want more info about bisexuality? Check out the American Institute of Bisexuality website here.
For those of you who are unaware, I am bisexual. It isn't really something I talk about. Like many bisexuals I have never formally come out (I guess this is pretty close, though). My mom knows, most of my friends know. I am selective who I discuss it with because many people are not open to the idea. I have never really felt the need to give myself the label but it is truly what I am.
(Not really sure what bisexuality means? Here is a pretty good definition:
“I call myself bisexual because I acknowledge that I have in myself the potential to be attracted — romantically and/or sexually — to people of more than one sex and/or gender, not necessarily at the same time, not necessarily in the same way and not necessarily to the same degree.”)
I have lived a heterosexual life. With the exception of a short period in my late teens I have been only with men. That fact doesn't mean I am now less attracted to women or inherently more likely to spend my life with men. I am attracted to both, for very different reasons.
"According to the 2013 Pew Research Survey of L.G.B.T.-identified Americans, bisexuals are less likely than gays and lesbians “to view their sexual orientation as important to their overall identity.” That feeds into a belief among some gays and lesbians that bisexuals are essentially fence-sitters who can pass for straight for decades at a time and aren’t especially invested in the L.G.B.T. community."
I can attest first hand to that being true. As human beings we all identify ourselves in different ways. I'm a woman. I'm an intellectual. I'm a hippie. Those are what seem most important to me. I'm a bisexual doesn't even make the top 5. For others, sexual orientation might come first, or second. It might be the major defining factor of your life.
I have not been immersed in the LGBT movement and I was ignorant to the under-representation of bisexuals. This article really opened my eyes to the need for me to embrace my sexual identity and advocate so others can, too.
I feel lucky to have the pool of potential suitors be larger. Loving people regardless of their gender really does feel like a gift.
I will leave you with this last excerpt from the article which resonated the most for me:
“I really wish everyone could experience how extraordinary it is to be able to fall in love with people regardless of their gender,” he said. “I once told a straight friend who couldn’t really understand my bisexuality: ‘Hey, just because you’re incapable of finding the beauty in both genders, don’t hold your deficiencies against me. You have a handicap, I don’t.’ But, somehow, I’m seen as the strange one, the one who doesn’t fit into our obsession with everything being black or white, straight or gay.”
Want more info about bisexuality? Check out the American Institute of Bisexuality website here.
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Right, Write, and Wrong
I recently finished reading a book that really got me thinking. It's called The Atheist's Guide to Christmas. Now I realize that reading something with Christmas in the title in February might seem a little odd, but I picked it because I needed a little levity in my life. I figured there is never a bad time to poke fun at social and religious norms. To my surprise, this book filled with short stories was both amusing at times and enlightening. Each chapter was written by a different non-theist. Some are comedians, scientists, writers.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)