No, I am not leaving, Janet. It is a question of time and energy - or rather the lack of both.
There are new adventures in the works.
I have joined the speakers bureau of the Gay Alliance of the Genesee Valley. This will give me a chance to tell our story. The more we are understood, the faster the transgender community will be accepted.
I have submitted 2 presentation proposals for the Northeast LGBT Conference that will be held at Univ of Buffalo this upcoming April. One is a book talk on my autobiography. The other is what centered on the challenges I faceed as a public school teacher transitioning in the workplace.
http://www.nelgbtc.com/ I am also trying to put together a plan to do more book-talks.
I am singing with the Rochester Women's Community Chorus and would like to become...
involved...with another woman in the chorus.
On top of this, I am still teaching full time and working at my local Wegmans 1/2 time.
As you can tell, the plate is starting to overflow once again. This time, instead of trying to pick up the pieces of my life, I am planning a future - a new future.
Some of us are home-bodies. We live in one place - one home - most of our life. Some of us are wandering troubadours. Pilgrims being lead forth by a drive we cannot define. And, yet, it burns true within us.
I am such a pilgrim.
I have always described my life as a journey - a voyage across the seas. My woman's intuition is telling me that its time to leave the pier once again. Time to set the
Defiant's bow towards the open waters.
Rule 39: A ship in harbor is safe – but that is not what ships are built for. – John A. Shedd
A song I wrote 30 years ago sums it all up.
Shauna
Captain of the
Defiant. Captain of my life.
Raising Sail
Let go the port side moorings!
Let's make sail into the night!
Set our course there on that Second Star,
hold her there 'til dawn's first light
And we're raising sail, heading out to sea.
Going home to where I belong.
Looking back on those years I spent on shore, I'm asking
Why did I ever leave the sea?
To watch the sails fill still stirs my heart.
Feel the waves go rolling by.
The salt air tastes so sweet to me.
Hear the seagull shout its cry
And we're raising sail, heading out to sea.
Going home to where I belong.
Looking back on those years I spent ashore, Were they real?
Or just a sailor's dream?
It feels so good to be back onboard, back again, with my first love
The first mate says "It's good to see you home, but, please tell me, why to the sea?
Late at night lying in my lover's arms.
Thought I was as happy as could be.
But in my dreams, every once in a while I swear,
I'd hear my mistress cry for me!
Oo – Oh! Oo – Oh!
"Where can you be?" she'd say to me.
Oo – Oh! Oo – Oh!
She looked up at me from the pier.
I looked down from my Bridge.
The look in her eye said that she knew the truth that
She had lost me to the sea.
And we've raised our sails. Back in open sea
Watchin' the stars fade with the dawn.
Looking ahead, I know I'll never leave.
This ship is all the home I'll ever need.
Crossing the waves sailing free.
With my mistress, the Sea!
