Happy Pride Month

Happy Pride Month to all of my LGBTQAI+ readers!! You are loved and you have come a long way, baby. My kids are shocked when we tell them what it was like in the 80s/90s, where many of our gay friends, family, and colleagues felt the need to stay closeted for a myriad of reasons. (They also laugh at me when I say that my friends and I completely believed that George Michael was straight. We never even questioned it. My friend’s mom crushed on him hard.)

We all know the pain it feels when we are in a situation where we feel we can’t be our true, authentic selves. We all know that horrible, hollow feeling of betraying our own selves, at times. Our LGBTQAI+ friends have felt that situation in almost every single aspect of their lives. How painful! How wrong! And on top of that, the price of being true to themselves has included acts and threats of violence, family estrangement, being ostracized from their faith, and having to fight for every single right that we straights just take for granted. . . . . If you really believe that “gay is a choice”, why would anyone choose this road????

I support you all, my dear gay friends, family and readers and all who love you. I hope that you have a wonderful month of celebrating! Lately, I have been listening to the PRIDE radio station when I drive in my car and it’s made my errands a pure blast. It’s like having a dance club in my car. I don’t want to leave the car. The music played is so upbeat and fun. That’s something that I think the Pride movement has in spades – optimism, excitement, buoyancy, love, acceptance – despite all odds. Dancing through torrential storms will get you far, and it will take you closer to your destination, which is really the only destination any of us want to reach – pure and total Love.

“It’s always wrong to hate, but it’s never wrong to love.” — Lady Gaga

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Here is the question of the day from 3000 Questions About Me:

2095. What is your go-to comfort food?

Random Thoughts Thursday

+I ended up at an estate sale the other day. I’ve written before that I don’t particularly love estate sales because it often feels too personal and intimate to rummage through someone’s things and collections and to poke through their “very every day life”, but this estate sale was occuring at an intriguing, unique looking house that I happened to ride by. I was too curious not to stop. I was not disappointed. The home was filled to the brim with collections of every kind. It was like being in a museum and stepping back in time. I made a remark to that affect and one of the women, who was working the sale, murmured in a disgusted tone, “Yep, if she liked it, she bought it.” That was the exact, a-ha moment when I decided that I really didn’t need the odd, yet interesting, olive green owl candle, with a slightly melted ear tuft. I put it back on the table and I headed back to my car for some deeply needed, self-reflection.

+Why is everything these days seemingly “infused with technology”? My shampoo, my moisturizers, my laundry detergent all have descriptions on them, that make them sound like mega computers. I am washing my hair with microchips, apparently. My skin creme has a “hydration complex”. (So now my beauty products have as many complexes as I do.) And we are only on the brink of this “artificial intelligence” revolution. These are actual words, (these are not words that I made up), from some of my ordinary, everyday products: “Zip-Up technology”, “Nanovasive technology”, “dirt and fade technologies.” It feels like all products fall into two categories these days: “All Natural/Organic/Self Sustaining/Renewable/High and Mighty Perfection” or “Advanced Applied Mechanical Engineering in Technological Liquid Form”. Maybe I should rebrand my blog. Adulting – Second Half is an organic, aged mix and essence of non-artificial hormones, and biotic and cellular emotion, transferred on to your screen with the help of Desperate to Spit It All Out in the Hopes of Making Some Sense of It All. (DSIAOHMSSIA technology)

+I am very proud of West Virginia’s New River Gorge being named a National Park this past December. If you have read my blog for a while, you know my affinity for America’s best kept, natural secret – West Virginia. If you want to have a fabulous, nature filled trip this summer, keep this national (Yay!) park on your short list. This beautiful place will remind you that God’s creations are more purely organic, and far surpass any kind of technological wonder than anything that we humans have ever made. You will rest in peaceful awe, as you take in the views of all of the natural wonders that make this gorge and its gorgeous surroundings, so worthy of its new designation.

+Finally, Happy Pride Month!!! In the words of Morgan Freeman: “I hate the word homophobia. It’s not a phobia. You’re not scared. You’re an asshole.”

And as a promised, added feature, here’s Throwback Thursday‘s previous blog post of mine, for today. This one is one of the most viewed posts from my blog:

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.