Changes

For awhile, I have been noticing a lot of things around us in our little part of the state are changing. The weather around us is slowly changing, the mornings are colder and the dew clings to the grass where there is shade until late mornings. Fall colors, since we are in the Deep South, we don’t get the classic full bodied color changing of the leaves that the good people of the northern states see every fall. For one thing, the varieties of tree in this are mostly evergreen, but there are some hard woods with their brilliant colors of fall, and it is slowly coming to our part of the world.

My body has most certainly changed with my breast surgery the reconstruction and augmentation. It has been almost 5 week since my surgery and there is definitely a feeling that the sensitivity of the nipple area is not as bad as it was a few days after my augmentation surgery. But I have been lingering at the mirror more there days examining my body shape. What was my waist has now drifted higher and my hips are most certainly a lot wider these days; in addition to my new top features. I have noticed my fingers seem to be slimmer and longer; maybe it just that my nail have grown. I use to chew the nails to a stub when I was a kid; but when I started to let things grow, I went to a manicurist and wore acrylic nail for a year or so until my nail were long enough to grow out.

We are more involved in working for LGBT reforms since Rebecca, Kay and I started the PFLAG chapter. We went to our first pride parade, it was small but it is an important movement to fight bigotry and hate in the workplace and for the rights of all people to be able to choose which bathroom to use without harassment. Our PFLAG group is a quiet, and comforting space and time for everyone to be who they are, free of the prejudice and hate they feel the rest of their days. Kay made an interesting observation concerning the differences one can ‘feel’ when we were with the ladies at Southern Comfort and with the support group we were meeting with in Tallahassee. We could feel warmth in acceptance and encouragement as we were welcomed to Southern Comfort; it was like one big family. We were just like the other 846 conventioneers; being free to be who they wanted to be and not be judged otherwise. Well there was some judgments about the choice of clothes some wore, but that’s just what women do, critique each other clothing choices. There was no power struggle for authority, no lashing out with prejudice and jealousy. No one exerted control over the group, the volunteers worked side-by-side to make sure all events happened as planned.

Yet, as we stood on the floor during the last meeting of our regional church convention, the power struggles between officiating group of the white patriarchal dominating clergy was never more in evidence, blatant distain for some . Even in a small group setting, it was hard for them to recognize a white woman much less give up the floor to let her have her say in any matter they were discussing. Even in other group meeting where there is a dominance of male oriented thinking, you can feel the tension and distain swirling around the room like some dark cloak ready to drop and cover the room.

But changes are on the horizon and gathering in the winds ready to sweep the storm clouds of hate, and anger, and discrimination into the void of nothingness.

Margaret Mead once said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”