Realizing it’s been a bit since I’ve published a piece of writing… Hubby and I returned Monday evening from our camping getaway and it’s been a pretty full week of recovering from our adventures, client and discovery sessions (I still have a couple spots available if you’re feeling inclined to explore coaching) and, of course, preparing for the Spring holiday.
Looks like it might be nice enough here to eat brunch outside on Sunday–this absolutely delights me! I still have a scavenger hunt to create, and it’s probably the last for my daughter who’s planning to move out of state at the end of June. I’m off to “the city” today to pick up the small Spring gifts that will serve as the treasures to be found through a series of riddles I’ll write.
I remember the year this became our tradition. The magic of the Easter Bunny a few years behind us, my son craving an engaging ritual. Me scrambling at the last minute to devise something satisfying that would make the holiday special and create family memories. I was working really hard at it all that year–2019, the year the identity took over our lives–to bond us tighter as a family. A few clues in, he and his sister working together to figure out the rhymes, he looked up, made eye-contact with me, and mouthed, “thank you!” with the most adorable sincerity written all over his face.
This will be the 5th year of the Spring Scavenger Hunt followed by brunch. It’s a creative endeavor that I’m enjoying and still have much to do to make it happen, so rather than writing a full essay (I’ve got a number of topics swirling around in my brain, but there they will stay for a bit longer…) I thought I’d link an older piece that I wrote last year about this time. It was one of my most popular pieces last year, when my readership was much smaller.
It recaps a bit of our family story, and I enjoy recognizing the growth I’ve made since writing it. The original piece was written while I was still figuring out what “acceptance” really means and the update at the end was written shortly after my daughter’s 18th birthday. I think this is when I was finally starting to get it–how to love deeply but let go of my need to control; how to consciously shift the parenting dynamic and evolve the relationships with my kids as they figure out who they are in this world, inviting them to take responsibility for their experiences by modeling how to take responsibility for my own. My ego had been shattered, and I was figuring out how to recover and be in the world with an open heart, less defended, more capable of feeling intense emotions, more in tune with my own needs. Oh, and realizing how much better life could be sans Twitter.
…I keep trying to find just the right way to end this short note, and it’s just not coming to me. I hope you’re all finding ways to take advantage of Spring’s invitation to birth something new into your experience that adds, well, more Life to your life.
Happy Spring, and here’s that piece from last year: What Hurts Most
Not sure if you’d like to have it but here is something
https://www.transgendertrend.com/children-change-minds/
Hi! Thank you for sharing and yes what progress you’ve made! In searching for the original studies that were done on kids with gender dysphoria that found if left alone most would grow out of it and most would be gay, do you know where I can locate this research?