Monday Deluge and The Miracle of Thought

Monday morning brought a cold, crushing deluge just as I reached the door of my daughter's school. We rushed inside but not before we were both sopping wet. Before I had a chance to lament my own poorly chosen footwear, my daughter announced that her shopkins slipons were soaked through to her socks. No matter that the rain came as unfortunately and as untimely as possible, I was still a lousy parent because I failed to have a spare pair of shoes or even socks in my car. Feeling miserable inside and out now, I walked her down to her classroom trailing thin ribbons of water from our dilapidated ladybug umbrella. Despite being soggy, Jaden's mood had improved now that her dentist appointment was behind her. She hurried off to her desk, but not before circling back for another hug and kiss. This kid always seems to know when I can use seconds on affection. I rushed back out to the car, hoping my seat warmers would at least partially dry out the back of my dress on the short ride to the office. This dark, horrible morning has been the rancid icing on my suck cake today.

"Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise"
Day 925 September 19, 2016
Prompt: “Miracles are thoughts. Thoughts can represent the lower or bodily level of experience or the higher or spiritual level of experience. One makes the physical, and the other creates the spiritual.” The Course of Miracles. What are your views on thoughts being miracles?

I almost want to skip this prompt and would have if I hadn't committed to get back into the swing of things this week. It seems entirely too ethereal for a wet and miserable morning. My brain feels fuzzy as I read and re-read the prompt, like I can't connect two coherent thoughts. This morning my thoughts definitely do not feel like miracles. They feels like lead weights being pushed around in my brain, sluggish and labored. "Miracles are thoughts"...maybe. Sometimes? It depends. I have never considered myself very philosophical. It is hard for me to connect my daily barrage of thoughts to a "higher, spiritual level of experience". I feel like my thoughts come in a continuous stream, even when I am writing. I "see" the thoughts more than feel them. I'm not sure I know how to think other than in a lower or bodily level.

"Blogging Circle of Friends "
DAY 1405 September 19, 2016
Prompt: Use the following words for inspiration: spirit, dust, paradise, phoenix, cage, fruiting, love

Callie checked her watch. She still had over an hour until her meeting. As she had feared, she had arrived to early and now she was forced to bear the anxiety as she passed time in the narrow, urine colored waiting room. She caught the eye of an elderly man, scoping her out over the top of his magazine. Callie tried not to wither under his assessing gaze. She tried not to let the scrutiny turn the well worn wheels of doubt in her mind. There was no reason to assume he didn't see her as what she now was, an attractive middle aged women waiting to see her dentist. physician.

Callie smiled at the man. He quickly dropped his gaze back to magazine. He was reading one of those glossy travel rags. There was a photo of some tropical destination on the cover, some remote paradise far from the dust and grime of the urban Midwest. She suddenly longed to be anywhere else than here, with this man and what he may or may not be seeing in her. She felt the familiar rush of panic, the cage of her insecurity rattling around her. Callie closed her eyes. She began to recite her mantra silently inside her head. She was a fire spirit, a phoenix, beautiful and strong. After a few moments, she opened her eyes. The man was staring again.

She had lived her entire life under the judgmental eyes of others. She had been abandoned, bullied, threatened and marginalized. After the surgeries, she had thought it would easier. She had spent hours in the mirror, looking for flaws but the truth was that she was lovely and feminine in every way. She had found immeasurable happiness in her reflection now that it matched what had been inside her since birth. As she learned about how to flatter and highlight her features, she felt the wonderful fruiting in her soul. Callie had expected that love would see her through the rest of the way, love and her mantra. She wondered, feeling herself shrink under the man's rude stare, if she had been foolish.

The Gender Bathroom Debate and R.I.P Prince "Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise"
DAY 776 April 22, 2016
This seems to be a very controversial issue here in the states, I've included a link for you that do no see the craziness in our news.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/fights-break-out-over-first-gender-neutral-bath...
What are your thoughts about this occurrence? Do you agree or disagree?

Like most of the nation, I've been watching this news and trying to decide where I sit with the issue. As it is with so many things, this issue has been heavily politicized, with soundbites, news stories and video clips designed to support the agendas of one group or another. My feelings are mixed because I've personally known a transgendered person and I came to believe that to be born transgendered was a form of birth defect, and not, as many speculated, brought about by abuse, trauma or social pressures. I learned about what it means to be diagnosed with Gender Dysphoria. I place a lot of faith in science and I feel the scientific community may be very close to proving that the process of determining gender identity as birth can be biologically corrupted in the same way that produces other birth abnormalities. The fact that transgendered births exist in every culture since the dawn of time further supports that evidence. I believe that a true transgendered individual can be born with the sexual organs of one sex while mentally identifying as the opposite sex. I believe for these people, existence is a challenge few of us could ever comprehend. This is a route issue I have with politicians passing laws restricting the use to restrooms to one's gender as assigned by birth. I believe transgendered people are born of both sexes, one physical and one mental. I'm uncomfortable with anyone claiming the authority to decide for any one group what laws and standards are placed on something I believe we only marginally understand.

Having said that, I understand the counter argument as well. I can see that by removing the restrictions for one group, limits the perceived protections of another. I'm a mother of a young girl myself and while I would not be concerned with her using the same restroom as a transgendered person, I am extremely concerned about those individuals who would take advantage of such laws to indulge their perversions. I see this legislation allowing for loopholes for the undesirable and criminal acts by people merely posing as transgendered and that is not acceptable. That will not work, not for the transgendered community nor anyone else. These people using the law as an excuse to perpetrate crimes against others, they are vile opportunists, anomalies in the system, a system that has given them a unique opportunity. These people propagate the misconception that gender identity has something to do with sexual preferences or perversions...that simply isn't an accurate assessment of truly transgendered people in my opinion.

Several years ago I was approached in a human resources capacity, by a long time and well respected employee who was about to begin transitioning. It was my first introduction to someone transgendered in an industry that could not be more old fashioned and patriarchal. This individual was over fifty, married and had adult children and grandchildren. He talked a great length about having struggled his entire life to conform to a gender that was assigned to him at birth but did not match what was inside. He had made the difficult decision to transition to female in what I believe had to be one of the hardest environments to do so. It was journey we were all to participate and one that proved to be very revealing for me. Over the course of two years, he transitioned to she, in a very public and very physically demanding ways. There were painful conversations, difficult confrontations, multiple surgeries and very hard recoveries. There was a lot of trepidation and fear but also there was joy. There was fulfillment. For each thing she endured, she emerged stronger and more truly and completely the person she always believed she was. The bathroom issue came up in our company as well. The solution came from the employee herself who felt it would be most comfortable to everyone is she simply used the unisex single bathroom at the top of the hall for the time during her transition. After her gender reassignment surgery, she sometimes used the same bathroom as I did and I honestly I never thought about it even once. It was just a bathroom and she was there for the same reasons I was, to use the facilities and then go on with her day.

As these laws are written, they are not going to work. In an attempt to resolve an issue, as a society we have over-corrected to the point of generating a bigger problem. Designating an additional bathroom as unisex or gender-free respects the transgender community in the same way having a Family restroom respects Dad who don't want to take their daughter's into the Men's room or Moms who have young boys. It is an alternative. It makes sense. I fail to see the issue with having a unisex bathroom added to the choices available. Why take something away? Why not simply add an alternative, inclusive choice? And for those transgendered individuals who have fully transitioned to male or female by undergoing sexual reassignment surgeries, why do we even need a law? They should be entitled to use the restrooms corresponding to their biological sex even if it came to them, not at birth, but through their choice and medical science. Just my opinion...