Words Of Wisdom...

[Guest Donna Jean]

.

Ok, I have something here that I'm going to post and I know of a few people right off the bat that will totally dislike what this has to say....

Sorry....

This is for the majority that will like to agree with it...

So, without further ado.....

Reasons To Cherish Being Transsexual

Because being transsexual is often so hurtful, so filled with sadness and longing, with shame and loss and difficulty, it is easy to come to the conclusion that the whole thing is utterly a curse, perhaps inflicted by arcane and evil ancient gods

Oh, probably. But there is an upside too. Most human lives are utterly mundane, devoid of any real uniqueness; the average person somnambulates through an existence devoted to filling the roles expected of them. But to be a transsexual is a magical, wondrous thing.

Consider. We are given many gifts in compensation for the terrible loss of our childhood as ourselves, and for the pain we endure. We are by some as yet unknown mechanism statistically far more intelligent, as a class, than perhaps any other kind of people. We are almost universally more creative, and we often possess incredible levels of courage and self-determination, demonstrated by our very survival, and ultimate attainment of our goal. We are rare as miracles, and in our own way, as magical, or so has been the belief of all ancient cultures on the earth.

We are given awareness that others would never experience, understanding of gender, of the human condition, of society and the roles and hidden rules unquestioned within it. We are given a window into the lives of both sexes, and cannot help but be, to some degree, beyond either. From this we have a rare opportunity: to choose our own life, outside predetermined and unquestioned definition or role. We can do new things, original things, only because our experience is so unique.

We get to be true shape shifters, and experience the sheer wonder of melty-wax flesh and a real rebirth into the world. Our brains and bodies gain benefit from having been bathed in and altered by the hormones of both sexes. We appear to retain our visible youthfulness where others wrinkle, and for years longer. We possess neural advantages from both sexes, such as the language advantages of the feminized brain, and the spatial abilities of the masculinized brain both. We are shocked into waking up, if we allow it, to a life we create for ourselves...we are not automatically doomed to sleepwalk through life.

After our transformations, after the full-moon lycanthropic miracle that the modern age affords us, we can live lives of success and love, and genuine specialness, if we choose. If we can get past our upbringing, past the programming, the bigotry, the messages of disgust from the culture around us, if we can stand as ourselves in freedom, then our special gifts grant us a heritage of wondrous power.

We have a proud and marvelous history.

In ancient days we were magic incarnate. We were Nadle, Winkte, Two-Souls, Shamans and healers and magical beings to our communities. We possessed the ability to give the blessings of the gods and spirits, and were prized as companions, lovers, and teachers. We were the prize gift of ancient tribes, entertainers, designers and dreamers. Sometimes we were the -somewhat reluctant- rulers of empires, and the consorts of emperors. We were champions and warriors too, who were feared for our unique gifts turned to inevitable victory.

Know that it is only in recent centuries, with the rise of the single minded, monolithic and monotheistic desert religions, filled with harsh single gods and twisted, narrow morals, that our kind have become reviled, the objects of scorn. Once, we were the kin of the gods.

To be transsexual is not easy, and it is not a birth that could be envied, but neither is it damnation. It was once considered a rare wonder, if a mixed one; a faery gift that cuts as it blesses. And in the modern age, of hormones and surgery, we are the first generations of our kind to finally know the joy of complete transformation, of truly gaining our rightful bodies. No other transsexuals in history have been so fortunate.

I say that we are unicorns, rare and wondrous, with still a touch of ancient magic and the kinship of the gods. Though it is agony, beyond the fire we have the opportunity to become alchemic gold. We have much to add to the world, and to give to ourselves and those who love us. We have always been, we are still the prize of the tribe, for only the world around us has changed, the desert harshness branding us vile. We are still the same. Our compensations are real, and our lives are special; we have but to grasp the gifts born of our sufferings.

When I look around me at the mundane lives, there are times I think that maybe I am glad I was born transsexual, for I would never have been what I have become without that curse. I cannot help but be grateful for my uniqueness, so I am brought to a strange revelation: deep down, I cherish having been born a transsexual

Be a unicorn with me, and cherish it too.

----author unknown

I hope that some of you enjoyed that....

Huggs

Donna Jean

[Guest NatashaJade]

Love that, Dee Jay.

You know, it's a funny thing. One of my favorite book/films is Fight Club which in many ways is a deconstruction of the myth of difference. Tyler Durden announces to his space monkeys that they are not unique snowflakes. You know what? He is right to a point. Most people are not unique in that their existence is a constant struggle to fit in with everyone else and deny that which makes them different.

We, on the other hand, reject the life of the space monkey and accept the role of the unicorn, the cursed gift of the faeries that says we must accept our unique life and quit trying to deny that we don't fit if we want to find happiness. We have seen beyond the veil and know too much to live comfortably and completely in the mundane world. We are unique snowflakes and are beautiful because of it.

love you

Gin

[JenniferB]

I enjoy reading that Dee Jay. Like your ladybug, I have always had a special attachment to the unicorn.

Love Jenny

[Guest Kaitlyn D]

It's really kind of a thrilling thought. To think that we were once thought to be kins to the gods. To be loved and cherished and have the beauty within us recognized like that would just be amazing.

Thanks for posting that Dee Jay!

[Guest Lillet Coll]

I'm suddenly inspired to write, and I haven't felt like that in quite a while.

[Guest Annaemo]

Wow this is just awesome. I think people try to deny there feelings and also tell others it is wrong too. Are there any books which encourage us to be transgender? I'm guessing there are hardly any which are written from a general perspective. People would rather say it was a mental defect which could be cured by treatment, like how homosexuality was seen to be in the early part of the last century.

It seems strange but for a few days I felt Samadhi which means awakening in Hindu and Buddhist thinking. Our eyes project the world around us into our minds which comprehend it. In Buddhism the mind and soul are opened by meditation and it is said that all things can be understood when our minds are absolutely clear. As some people know the world is still not know to us even by 5%. If you think that is not true try reading chaos theory and high level science books. The things they teach at school are not at all how things really are. They are only still a simple guide and starting point. The galaxy and god we are no way near understanding. Who is to say that Transgender is not a step up in evolution and not such a curse?

[Guest Elizabeth K]

Donna Jean, that is very powerful writing. I know those feelings - and we here at Laura's have put parts of it down in writing, but never in a collective essay like that!

And some will disagree - yes - and go against the grain here? Me?

I wish I had been a natal female. I wish I had little or no knowledge of what it is like to be male. I wish I had had a girlhood, been a teenybopper, been courted and loved because I was a female... and had had a husband. I wish I had been made pregnant and birthed at least one child. I wish... I just wish...

I wanted my womanhood, and I was not allowed it... and it is just not what I was allowed in my life... not allowed... 61 years before I began transition... sighhhhh.

I don't know, the uniqueness of the unicorn? Perhaps - but the sadness of the wrong bodied existance weighs heavily upon us.

Did the unicorn ever want to be a simpler being, say a horse with all the horse's priviledges - nobody hating its magical abilites, no one hunting it to cut off its horn for a supposed magical potion? Mundane is not always mundane. Sometimes magic is there for the non-trans... I suggest its a matter of attitude, luck... and maybe charma.

And so many transpeople never experience any magic at all - is it because they don't see it, or is it just because it is not there for them?

But its seemingly true, that essay. We ride a wild ride! We experience a wide spectrum of living - we are therefore... maybe... gender cursed and gender gifted!

Lizzy

[Guest ~Brenda~]

Amen.....

Thank you Dee Jay

HUGS

Brenda

[Guest KimberlyF]

I really like that. I don't believe everything in there yet...but I no longer hate myself.

I kinda think this is for everyone. We're just not always ready to hear and believe anything good about ourselves.

Kim

[Guest meridian]

Thank you, DJ and Lizzy, for your very moving posts. I saw my daughter in DJ's descriptions, and my own regrets about her life in Lizzy's message. I see her brilliance, creativity, and sensitivity every time I talk with her. I hope that as her life goes on she will find the fulfillment and satisfaction she deserves, even with those aspects of womanhood that she has had to miss. I'll add that very few natal women or men get to live out their early hopes. All of us, regardless of our situation, must deal with fate's realities and life's compromises. Lizzy, you are so brave to have made this change at a stage in life I know well, because I share it with you! May all of us find happiness and rewarding surprises in the years ahead.

With love,

Meridian

[Guest Donna Jean]

Lizzy, you are so brave to have made this change at a stage in life I know well, because I share it with you! May all of us find happiness and rewarding surprises in the years ahead.

With love,

Meridian

Dear Heart....

Isn't it strange that people like Lizzy, me, Sally, Carolyn Marie, Becky and others have stepped off into the void at this stage in our lives?

All of us are 55 and up...some of us 60 and over (me)...

We all have established lives and spouses...Lizzy and Sally have lost theirs so far and some are on shaky ground..

At this time in our lives we're upon retirement, and should be enjoying our homes, gardens and family...

So, what drives us to risk all of this?

When I came out to my wife a few years ago, she told me later that she wished that I had told her that I was buying an airplane instead..THAT she could handle...

So, yes, we're all special.....but, at what cost?

LOVE

Donna Jean

[Carolyn Marie]

Thank you, Dee Jay, and thanks to the Anonymous author. Anyone able to use the words somnambulates and lycanthropic in a piece of prose has my admiration.

I agree with much of that wonderful piece of prose and poetry. What do I not agree with? Only that part in which the author says that those who are not trans are doomed to a mundane and ordinary life. I think anyone and everyone, of whatever gender or sexual orientation, is capable of leading a life of meaning and extraordinary achievements. It is there but for the taking for all of us, trans and non-trans alike. To look up in the sky and see the Milky Way and let one's imagination take them to the outer regions of the galaxy, or write a book or a poem, or paint a masterpiece, or help the needy, or save an animal or a human life, those are miraculous things as well.

Yes, we are different, and special, and we've experienced life on both sides of the gender spectrum. Those are unique gifts. But what we suffer sometimes doesn't seem worth what we gain. Its all a matter of perspective.

It's taken a long lifetime for me to finally experience these gifts, and I'm glad that I can. But I'll carry regrets with me forever.

Carolyn Marie

[Guest Amanda W]

absolutely loved reading that ,and cant agree with it more. our outlooks on life are far above most due to our transition, and i would not trade being trans for the world, how else could i live and experience everything the way i have.

~amanda

[Guest Opal]

Hi Dee Jay!

Looks like most all of the responses have been quite favorable. And even if someone did not agree with this, they should not take issue with you for presenting it. You are an amazing lady, and I feel honored to know you.

.Ok, I have something here that I'm going to post and I know of a few people right off the bat that will totally dislike what this has to say....Sorry....This is for the majority that will like to agree with it...So, without further ado.....

Reasons To Cherish Being Transsexual

Because being transsexual is often so hurtful, so filled with sadness and longing, with shame and loss and difficulty, it is easy to come to the conclusion that the whole thing is utterly a curse, perhaps inflicted by arcane and evil ancient godsOh, probably. But there is an upside too. Most human lives are utterly mundane, devoid of any real uniqueness; the average person somnambulates through an existence devoted to filling the roles expected of them.

Most human lives do find love and someone to share it with. Do not know if I would consider that mundane.

But to be a transsexual is a magical, wondrous thing. Consider. We are given many gifts in compensation for the terrible loss of our childhood as ourselves, and for the pain we endure. We are by some as yet unknown mechanism statistically far more intelligent, as a class, than perhaps any other kind of people. We are almost universally more creative, and we often possess incredible levels of courage and self-determination, demonstrated by our very survival, and ultimate attainment of our goal.

I must have missed that bus. I would rate myself as having average intelligence, and below average in self-determination.

<snip>

Our brains and bodies gain benefit from having been bathed in and altered by the hormones of both sexes.

The above can potentially be a very dangerous statement where self-medicating might be involved.

We appear to retain our visible youthfulness where others wrinkle, and for years longer. We possess neural advantages from both sexes, such as the language advantages of the feminized brain, and the spatial abilities of the masculinized brain both.

I really hope for improvements in language skills and perceptions from HRT.

We are shocked into waking up, if we allow it, to a life we create for ourselves...we are not automatically doomed to sleepwalk through life.

<snip>

Know that it is only in recent centuries, with the rise of the single minded, monolithic and monotheistic desert religions, filled with harsh single gods and twisted, narrow morals, that our kind have become reviled, the objects of scorn.

I really love the above description! Vague enough to avoid Google searches and the like, yet understandable as to WHO he/she describes!

Once, we were the kin of the gods. To be transsexual is not easy, and it is not a birth that could be envied, but neither is it damnation.

Well, a number of Trans people have paid for it with their lives.

It was once considered a rare wonder, if a mixed one; a faery gift that cuts as it blesses. And in the modern age, of hormones and surgery, we are the first generations of our kind to finally know the joy of complete transformation, of truly gaining our rightful bodies. No other transsexuals in history have been so fortunate.

Yet for many, the goal of transformation is to blend in to the point that one will not be identified as a transsexual.

I say that we are unicorns, rare and wondrous, with still a touch of ancient magic and the kinship of the gods. Though it is agony, beyond the fire we have the opportunity to become alchemic gold. We have much to add to the world, and to give to ourselves and those who love us.

Yet, so many of us have trouble obtaining employment to provide for basic human needs.

We have always been, we are still the prize of the tribe, for only the world around us has changed, the desert harshness branding us vile. We are still the same. Our compensations are real, and our lives are special; we have but to grasp the gifts born of our sufferings. When I look around me at the mundane lives, there are times I think that maybe I am glad I was born transsexual, for I would never have been what I have become without that curse. I cannot help but be grateful for my uniqueness, so I am brought to a strange revelation: deep down, I cherish having been born a transsexual

Be a unicorn with me, and cherish it too.----author unknown

Wish that the author would have been willing to make him/her-self known, but understand the reason for wanting to remain anonymous.

I hope that some of you enjoyed that....HuggsDonna Jean

Actually, Dee Jay, I did enjoy that. A lot of food for thought. Sorry if I came across overly harsh about some aspects of the piece. It was overall a very positive message, and for those needing a positive message, that is wonderful! It is far superior to anything I could have possibly written.

I do want to say that the silver lining for being Trans for me is Laura's and all of the wonderful people on here!

Just in case for anyone who has not already seen this piece from Laura, I would like to include it here.

Untreated transsexuals

Huggs,

Opal

[Guest Shari]

Hi All,

I've heard before that we're statistically more intelligent.......I like that but not so sure it's an everyday thing (because of some of the situations I can find myself in). I do think that we're special and have the ability for greater understanding and acceptance if we allow ourselves. The ladies who have overcome everything are my heroes, I takes superhuman strength.

Nice posting even though I am always suspicious of unicorns.

Shari

[Sally]

I finally found myself at the computer with enough time to read this topic and I would like to thank Dee Jay for bringing it to us.

It does supply a lot of fire for the imagination and mine burns pretty wild most of the time already.

Ancient societies took the unusual and instead of destroying it out of fear they attributed great powers and mystical abilities to them - the rare was greatly revered not shunned.

The example of the unicorn is good but most people believe that unicorns never existed - I am not positive but I like to believe that they did but very rare.

Look to your garden and yard for another example - the four leaf clover - they do exist just very rare but they were believed to have magical powers and today are still considered a sign of good luck, too bad society does not view us in a like manner.

Transitioning at any age involves losses and the older we are the greater the losses because we have had more time to accumulate friends and possessions but all we can do is hope that the gains will outweigh the losses.

I fully believe they will because for me I have spent a rather solitary life pretty much devoid of love - even in my now defunct marriage, since coming out my wife left me taking my acid reflux with her and on my recent birthday - not even a card from anyone in my family, I am lost to them but the balance - I came to Laura's and found acceptance and love.

I have met with several people from the site and have made special bonds with them as well as my online only (for now) friends, they are all so much more loving and giving than my former friends.

For a few examples (sorry I will have to leave some out - there are just so many) when I have been down, my friends like Donna Jean, Joe Cool, Alex Blitzen and Shane82 have sat up until the wee small hours with me trying to help me see the brighter side of things - they are all in a time zone where it is an hour later than mine, that shows how much they care - Jean Davis has sat up talking to me on Skype just to keep me company when I was all alone in Fort Worth, we turned it on and just talked while approving posts on the site and playing computer games when the site was not busy - several have adopted me as their mother and I love that because for me that is a wonderful expression of love, Zolrek was the first to adopt me and give me the Momma Sally designation - we PMed almost constantly at night in those days but perhaps the greatest example of the love shared by us as opposed to my former friends - when I was losing my house and trying to find anyplace I could afford in Fort Worth a wonderful lady called me and asked me to come live in her new apartment - two bedrooms and affordable even without sharing expenses, none of my former friends said anything more than, "That's too bad," Lizzy took action - that is unconditional love, we had only spent 5 nights together with Donna Jean and yet we were both certain that we could live with the other and you know what - it is definitely working!

Perhaps through our suffering or our similar circumstances we tend to have stronger bonds with the people we love, possible through all of the losses we have learned what is of real value in life and it is quite simple - we desire need and search for understanding and unconditional love and while I had never come close to finding it in 57 years of trying to be who everyone thought that I was, it was coming out and coming here that finally supplied that once missing yet all important ingredient to my life, the hormones and the changes that they are bringing are very nice, living as my true self is wonderful but finally having real love, unconditional and unwavering is the greatest gift of all and far out weighs any losses I may have had.

I love you all, my sisters, brothers and children - all who post and all who just lurk still too afraid to post,

Momma Sally