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What brings you the most fulfilment and joy?


Heather Shay

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What brings you the most fulfilment and joy?

 

For me it's doing something for someone and finding out it made a positive difference in their life. That brings me joy. I also love to create music (been a song creator for 50+ years) and find that someone likes what I've done :)

 

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Hi Heather. Lately for me it's my work with young trans people, and meeting young trans people in general. I am so on their side. They constantly teach me things. They are an unending inspiration.

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Being retired, I volunteer three days a week at a local women's shelter and one day a week at the local Habitat For Humanity Restore. Those are what I would consider most fulfilling.

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I like to say that I "partially" retired from the theater in 2011, "partially," because I don't think I'll ever "fully" retire; I tell friends "I'm still available!" –– although working long hours and driving long distances (especially i the winter) is no longer fun. I turned to writing for a creative outlet. I enjoy writing, although if I had to testify under oath, I'd say I enjoyed theater more, not "a lot" more, just "more." From what everyone else has said here, it seems pretty obvious that what most important to each of us is to be doing "something," and if that "something" can be of service to others, that's better yet!

 

Thanks for this topic, Heather Shay. It's a good one.

 

Rianon

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Hi Heather!

 

Dancing and cooking. I still cook a lot, with 12 year old twins, but i stopped dancing years ago. Between the absolute high of public performance and the quieter emotional fulfilment of helping severely disabled people find the dance in their own bodies it was incredibly fulfilling and empowering for me. Admitting that i am trans has given me a strong desire to return to dance. I used to think it was the pressures of parenthood, followed by a lingering shoulder injury, that severed my practice. I realise now that it was because i shut down my femininity when i became a "father", and my body couldn't dance as a man.

 

thank you for this prompt!

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I enjoy cooking....or rather, helping my partners cook.  Not that good at it yet.  I enjoy taking care of kids - those in our family and also in our community.  I love how accepting they are of anybody willing to talk to them and show them interesting things.  I enjoy working in the garden, since I get to bring in the literal fruits of my labor and see how it nourishes my family.  Basically, a simple life is a good life for me. 

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