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Yesterday, I had a lovely video chat with one of my best friends from grad school and, among other things, in our conversation they quoted a very powerful and enlightening sentence from the book Wintering by Katherine May: “My needs are reasonable”.  Encouraged by this and another close friend, I read the book Wintering duringContinue reading “Making space for my needs because they are reasonable”

Yesterday evening I went climbing outdoors with a couple of guys with whom I climb regularly once a week here (on weekdays): two of them were my regular climbing partners, and also friends at this point; the third was someone new to me but a buddy (& colleague) of theirs.  When I introduced myself toContinue reading “What a great response!”

[Content warnings: social anxiety; COVID/pandemic; (mis)gendering & gender dysphoria] “Courage is different for each of us”. So is fear.  My two best climbing buddies here in Colorado are both wild, somewhat reckless, adventurers (which is probably the reason we “clicked” and get along). They’re both very good climbers, one of them in particular having startedContinue reading “Fear, as well as courage, are both different for each of us”

I’m writing this post mainly as a reminder to myself of how wonderfully healing it is for me to be out in Nature — a true panacea.  The past couple weeks have been a quite stressful and somewhat overwhelming. I’ve found a counselor that feels like a great fit for now and I’ve been doingContinue reading “Panacea”

[Trigger warning: menstrual period; PMS] Today was rough. The “battle of the giants” raging in my body as female and male hormones fought for supremacy, probably intensified by PMS (according to my calendar…) and some poor sleep.  However, a small thing this evening made my day, turning it upside-down for the better.  I went toContinue reading “Small things can make a big difference”

When I was hanging out with one of my good non-binary/trans-masculine friends here on Saturday, they made a very insightful comment about one of the important aspects in the relationships among us in our gender-expansive group and particularly between those of us who feel similarly a little more trans-masculine — namely, that we can safelyContinue reading ““Practicing being a dude””

“It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.” [Lou Holtz] This quote came up a few months ago in one of the guided meditations I often do in the morning and it has been coming back to my mind frequently in these days — it has been feeling particularlyContinue reading “How we carry our loads”

[Trigger warning: boundary violation; victim shaming/blaming; unwanted attention.] It feels paradoxical, like an oxymoron, yet it is real: this morning I feel a muddle of emotions, yet extreme clarity as well. Maybe it’s just too soon to express this clarity — but I need to jot down some of these emotions, so I will.  ForContinue reading “Violating boundaries & shaming the victim”

[Trigger warning (depending on how one interprets the lyrics of the song): body image/shape; unwanted attention; objectification; … ] The song “Troublemaker doppelgänger” by Lucy Dacus is one of those that really gives me a visceral sense of the expression “to pull at the strings of one heart”. This song pulls at the strings ofContinue reading ““Troublemaker doppelgänger””

[Trigger warning: body image/shape; sex.] [Spoiler alert: although the ending of the movie is not discussed, some details of the film are given.] Last night I felt the need to relax with some light-hearted movie that would be easy to watch without being dumb, so I decided to risk it with the film “Good luck,Continue reading ““Good luck, Leo Grande!””