Long Term Goals and How to Attain Them

[Complete]

I haven't been to Susan's for a while but this afternoon I logged on again and perhaps this question is why.  For me transition is essentially complete.  I live a full and interesting life.  I've travelled, including trekking in Peru just a couple of weeks ago; dated both men and women; continued on in my career; and am now preparing to retire and live on the road full time.  There is no question about my gender or my life.  I am a woman.  Who I disclose to and when I do so are on my terms and under my control.  It is not that I am uncomfortable being trans, it is simply that being transgender is not my raison d'etre anymore and there is so much that I want to do with the time I have remaining in my life that to dwell on what might have been or how things ought to be would be both sad and wasteful.

This became my reality a couple of years post GCS and I have not had any other surgery, at least not yet.  Because I see myself as feminine and because my body is within the typical bounds of womanhood, I am perceived and I blend into the world just fine.  Living authentically and openly is the opportunity and pilgrimage of a lifetime.  The cost is extraordinary but not excessive.  It was worse living a persona and hiding the person.  Waking every day to the certain knowledge that today would be the same colorless void of yesterday and that tomorrow will be the same colorless despair.  To walk the path of change is the greatest privilege of my life and the winds have been gentle for some time now.

All journeys that matter, are pilgrimages to oneself - beginning and ending deep within our own spirit.  To discover what is real and what is good about who I am, is to transcend all that has gone on before and to become illuminated in sunlight.  This is the path that I will follow for as long as I am able.  In fifteen months I will walk out of the Science Center where I work and go to New Zealand.  I have been there before but this trip will be less hurried and in the company of a friend who lives outside of Christchurch.  Trish and I will ride and walk along the Tasman Sea and experience something of the magic of a place that is home to gentle people and eternal beauty 

From New Zealand I will cross over to Sydney and spend a while with one of the wisest people I know.  I met Aisla on these forums and the time I have spent with her is instructive and loving.  Eventually I will return to the States and prepare for the journey east.  Africa, Nepal, India, Cambodia and Indonesia are all in the plan.  Both to experience what is offered and to seek spiritual growth.

Then, if I am able, I will spend a year in Italy and Greece, studying art and language in the land of Da Vinci, Cicero and Plato.  Before, during, and after I will write.  In some ways I am completing the path that my Mother began several decades ago.  I have her notes and I have my ideas.  There are three books I have outlined and others I have considered.  I doesn't much matter if they are published.  It is in the creation of art as in the the realization of authenticity that transcendence and illumination are to be found.

Namaste,
Julie

Wow! Nicely said.  Thank you for taking the time to share.

[JB_Girl]

You're Welcome,
I'm glad that you enjoyed my thoughts.  The point is to be as fully alive as you have the energy to be.  But I think that you get that. 

J