How well are you...

Tending Your Story

“How are you tending to the emerging story of your life?”

Carol Hegedus & Frances Vaughn

For the first time in history, gay and lesbian couples can legally marry in the state of Alabama. Today is the day! I celebrate their equality and wish them well in their unions. Being fully who you are is as important to health and well-being as fresh air and sunshine. Slowly but surely, then with gathering speed, we have watched as people of the LGBT community stepped out of the darkness and into the light.

Tending you own story requires that you be honest and transparent, first with yourself, and then with the rest of the world. To hold back huge hunks of yourself for fear of rejection is debilitating. It requires enormous energy and vigilance to keep from tripping up, making a mistake that will out you. Until recently, gay and lesbian people risked life and limb, jobs and security, and exclusion from the greater community simply for being themselves. That's a wrong that is now being righted.

This tending to story requires a good long look at oneself; a look back and a look forward, but most of all, a look at now. How true to myself am I living? What do I hold back and why? What am I ashamed of, and what good does it do to hide? You are a child of God, and every child of God has gifts and flaws, and all are necessary and beautiful. If we want to evolve as human beings, if we want to express all of who we are meant to be, the first step is honesty. There is acceptance and celebration out there—especially today in Alabama.

                                                        In the Spirit,

                                                              Jane