To all of our new memebers, past and present.
Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 4:41 am
Hi girls,
I have a confession to make here. I normally don't welcome each new member as they join. It's not that I am a snob or think myself better, it's just that I begin to feel like I am just repeating the same thing over and over and it stops feeling sincere to me.
Having said that, I am glad you have found your way here. It's a place of great love and acceptance that saved my life at a time when I thought I was all alone in the world. WE have plenty of people who enjoy welcoming our new members and when they are done, there is not really much to add, other than to repeat what has been said.
Instead I want to embrace you and tell you that you are ok. You are not a freak. You are with the most loving caring people I have ever met. I love them very deeply. They helped me realize who and what I was and that it was not a shameful thing. It's just who I happen to be and that I could make that something positive or something negative and it was entirely up to me.
My road, like many of my sisters here has been tumultuous. Abusive childhood, years of denial and self loathing. Trying to live a normal male life, a bitter divorce, a disabling illness and a feeling of being stuck in limbo.
But I have turned this into something that makes me happy. It's just a matter of living as happy as I can, right now. Yes I can't wait until everything is perfect and remain miserable, or I can take each day and make myself as happy as I can, with what I have to work with. The only other choice is to be unhappy.
So instead of welcoming eacxh to new member, I hope instead to embrace you and welcome what you can offer to me about how you are living your life and in exchange I will tell you what I believe and I believe. I will try to lift you when you feel down and share in your jubilation when you are on top of the world.
But I only have my own experience to go by. So take it with how ever many grains of salt as you wish. I am not the kind of person who is offended when people don't take my advice and I don't expect people to be offended when I don't take theirs. Only each of us can know what is right for us.
But if my telling my experiences I can help others see they are not alone in their thoughts or feelings and in fact are not abnormal, I feel that is the best I can. Just a different kind of normal. And I will embrace you and hold you and tell you what I believe to be true. It may not always be what you want to hear, but it will always be with the heart and with good intentions Take what is useful to you and leave the rest.
Welcome, you are home.
Love alwasy,
Elizabeth
I have a confession to make here. I normally don't welcome each new member as they join. It's not that I am a snob or think myself better, it's just that I begin to feel like I am just repeating the same thing over and over and it stops feeling sincere to me.
Having said that, I am glad you have found your way here. It's a place of great love and acceptance that saved my life at a time when I thought I was all alone in the world. WE have plenty of people who enjoy welcoming our new members and when they are done, there is not really much to add, other than to repeat what has been said.
Instead I want to embrace you and tell you that you are ok. You are not a freak. You are with the most loving caring people I have ever met. I love them very deeply. They helped me realize who and what I was and that it was not a shameful thing. It's just who I happen to be and that I could make that something positive or something negative and it was entirely up to me.
My road, like many of my sisters here has been tumultuous. Abusive childhood, years of denial and self loathing. Trying to live a normal male life, a bitter divorce, a disabling illness and a feeling of being stuck in limbo.
But I have turned this into something that makes me happy. It's just a matter of living as happy as I can, right now. Yes I can't wait until everything is perfect and remain miserable, or I can take each day and make myself as happy as I can, with what I have to work with. The only other choice is to be unhappy.
So instead of welcoming eacxh to new member, I hope instead to embrace you and welcome what you can offer to me about how you are living your life and in exchange I will tell you what I believe and I believe. I will try to lift you when you feel down and share in your jubilation when you are on top of the world.
But I only have my own experience to go by. So take it with how ever many grains of salt as you wish. I am not the kind of person who is offended when people don't take my advice and I don't expect people to be offended when I don't take theirs. Only each of us can know what is right for us.
But if my telling my experiences I can help others see they are not alone in their thoughts or feelings and in fact are not abnormal, I feel that is the best I can. Just a different kind of normal. And I will embrace you and hold you and tell you what I believe to be true. It may not always be what you want to hear, but it will always be with the heart and with good intentions Take what is useful to you and leave the rest.
Welcome, you are home.
Love alwasy,
Elizabeth
