Into the Forest

Alone I wandered through the world.
“It is not safe!” My mother would say.
The boys would chase me through the woods,
Until I went so deep that even they were too afraid to follow.

Deeper and deeper I would go,
Deeper into myself I found peace in the hidden brook,
The lonely patch of sunshine piercing the forest canopy;
The gift of life seen in flowers struggling to view the sun;
And the gentle, great rocks on which to lay and dream and play.

Sounds so soothing and gentle;
The drip-drop of dew from leaves;
The chirp of nearby cardinals,
And the ever present owl watching me.

Discovering life in the forest,
A sign said “Off Limits” to all,
Except me.

- hh

Thailand’s Got Talent Gets a Wonderful Transgender Surprise

Helen’s Note: The YouTube Title of the Video unfortunately reflects the ignorance and sensational approach of the person posting the video.  It does not reflect my views or that of the blogger originally writing about this wonderful transgender woman.

by Lisa Gagliardi

Appearances can be deceiving, as we learn here. Watch as the judges get quite a jolt when this lovely soprano quickly turns into a tenor.

http://tv.gawker.com/#!5782107/thailands-got-talent-gets-a-transgender-surprise

The Puppet by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

If for a moment God would forget that I am a rag doll and give me a scrap of life..

I would value things not for how much they are worth but rather for what they mean.

I would write my hatred on ice and wait for the sun to come out, with a dream of Van Gogh I would paint on the stars a poem by Benedetti, and a song by Serrat would be my serenade to the moon.

With my tears I would water the roses, to feel the pain of their thorns and the incarnated kiss of their petals…

I wouldn’t let a single day go by without saying to people I love, that I love them.

To a child I would give wings, but I would let him learn how to fly by himself.

To the old I would teach that death comes not with old age but with forgetting­.

I have learned that everybody wants to live at the top of the mountain without realizing that true happiness lies in the way we climb the slope.

I have learned that when a newborn first squeezes his father’s finger in his tiny fist, he has caught him forever.

I have learned that a man only has the right to look down on another man when it is to help him to stand up.

The Puppet (excerpt)

Gabriel Garcia Marquez

A Life on the Outside

You know, I keep waiting for the perfect moment,

The perfect moment to live my life,

When everything is just so right,

That coming out has no spite.

Where I bare my heart and soul to others,

Nothing bad happens.  No one is smothered

With shame and fear and retribution

But rather I see an absolution

That my fears and shame were unjustified

Nor did I ever have to seek safety and lied.

My life is my own, I mean you no ill.

Can we not be people of good will?

I want to be normal.  I have always wished it so.

But sometimes life throws us curves to help us grow.

I want to live in the simplest of terms.

Enjoy the sunrise.  Enjoy being affirmed.

By living life one step at a time.

Savoring each step along the way is no more a crime.

Friends to enjoy; and family to savor.

It is more than a favor,

It is a life,

Longing to be free of internal and external strife.

Is it really too much to ask?

Amazing Sand Tray Animation

From “Ukraine’s Got Talent” an amazing performance:

Internity and Externity – An Ancient Poem

Why does Internity cry out to me?
Why does it beckon me so?

To keep me away from the sharp edges of Externity?
Where am I to live? Who will I be?
Mixing Internity and Externity makes
This process is so hard to see.

The roads of the external world lead to places I have never been.
The roads of my internal world are all too familiar.

Internity is safe. Internity is dangerous.
I need not take risks in my internal existence;
In Internity love is eternal and untouchable,
And ultimately unfulfilling and empty.

This inner world is a fantasy; a vacancy.
There are no relationships without reality.

The wicked dance of my internal world struggles to undo itself,
And meld with the external world;
Removing the rough edges from Externity,
Taking away the all too smooth and time worn edges of Internity.

My Internity does not undo itself voluntarily.
Naked and stripped of its allure,
Internity has been my protector from a harsh and violent world
When no protectors were to be found.

As Internity and Externity clash,
As neither existence is no longer Black nor White,
As I find that Internity is not as safe it is seems,
Externity is not as scary as it once was deemed.

Will I survive? Will I thrive?
Just asking these questions
Seems to suggest I may surmount the divide.

- Helen Hill 2006