My friend Taylor and I have started a new blog, Love Hand Made. It will feature posts on Hand Made goodies and issues surrounding. We're really excited, and hope that you guys will join us!
I didn't have an easy childhood. The things that I went through still haunt me to this day - things that I'm just now getting used to talking about, peeling back my clenched fists to expose scarred-anger-sadness-frustration-hopelessness that I have to learn to leave behind in order to be the best person I can be.
But there's people in this world who have suffered so much more than I. Wonderful, broken people who've lost everything and still live. I know one of those people, and she's an inspiration. She's beautiful, kind, generous and loving; much more so than many people I've met who think they are those things. She's had to experience pain I cannot fathom, more than once; yet she's resilient and strong.
My friend just turned 28 last month; and in a few short weeks, she'll be older than her mother or her sister ever grew to be. The stories are tragic; chronic illness that stole two of her three immediate family members and all of the women in her life. A small child who laid with her mother in her hospital bed, unaware of all the things that she would lose, miss, and yearn for as she traveled through her own life. A young adult who stood by her sister as she succumbed to an illness that had plagued her throughout her own young life.
In May, my friend became a mother. Her daughter is a beautiful little person and the light of her life. She's a wonderful mother, as she is a friend, but as she forges through the new world of parenthood, she's haunted by pain. She's tortured by the fear of what she cannot control; the curse of women in her family that she's somehow survived long enough to create a maternal relationship she cannot map. She struggles with the unknown. All of the possibilities, the tragedies, the chances follow her like a spirit; watching her as she lays her child to sleep.
She wants to feel better, she wants to be free. She knows why she's here. But she's built her life on top of a sunken pile of bricks; crafting a facade of strength to hide the sinkhole beneath her. And in order to fix it, she'll have to tear down everything she's standing on slowly, painfully and with care not to lose what's most important.
My friend is a gift to me. She may never realize how much I love her, how dear I hold her, and how close I will be even when the walls of her life are bare wall studs standing alone. I'll do everything I can to share the pain.
I've been getting a boost in traffic through Google Images, as my sidebar button for noonprop8.com has been indexed. For all of you that are coming to see it, here's the native size. Use it as you wish, just don't take credit for it :D
I am supporting a NO vote on Proposition 8 in California. I believe that love makes a family, not a man and a woman. I do not believe in taking rights that promote positive ideals such as respect, loyalty and commitment. There is no negativity being forced on others - this does not affect the greater population of the state. Marrying my husband 2 years ago was the best thing that's happened to me - and I think that all people should be allowed to experience that with the one they love.
While I respect the opinions of those who believe that this is wrong in the eye of their personal religion, I don't believe that is an argument that holds any weight in a country that practices a separation of church and state. In the United States, we are free to choose who we marry and when. We need more love and commitment to raising happy, healthy children and families. Don't segregate. Be progressive.
I would love to hear from any of you who have visited this blog to take this picture. How are you supporting NO on Proposition 8?
For those of you outside California, I'd love to hear your opinions as well. I know that some of you from my home state - Wisconsin - voted for or against a ban on gay marriage a couple of years ago.
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