week 23/23

Pride

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For the next four weeks, I’ll be posting some information, links, art, and photos for Pride and hopefully including some LGBT+ history. I’d like to start by saying that last week I heard some complaints by folks with nothing better to do asking why Pride gets a month and our veterans only get one day. This is obviously meant to create an issue where there is none. First, Memorial Day is not about veterans in that way; it’s about the war dead, which most people are glad to ignore until it suits their agenda. If they really felt this way, they’d spend Memorial Day at the cemetery, at a house of worship, volunteering instead of barbecuing and at baseball games and concerts. Second, there are many, many veterans (and war dead) who are in the LGBT+ community, and Pride is as much for them as any other person. Third, for those who declare that “pride” is a venal sin, I’d like to suggest that those divorced, adulterous, lying, hypocrites stay quiet and/or remove the log from their eye.

I wonder if, when these people see a rainbow in the sky if they shake a fist at it and complain loudly to the Creator about how woke He is.

Pride was born in revolution, even though LGBT+ people were around long before 1969. The ones who are out and open and celebrate Pride are not only celebrating themselves but are celebrating those of the community who are still not out, for personal reasons as well as safety ones.

My friend has a denim vest with the stenciled words: The first pride was a riot. I’ve used that to influence the art I created last night for this post. Sometimes the simplest designs tell a greater story.

Marsha P. Johnson

Sylvia Rivera

Stonewall Riots

Library of Congress Research Guides: 1969: The Stonewall Uprising

(c)2023

Mental Health Monday – Sleep

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I don’t know anyone who gets enough sleep. Like my kids, I stay up way too late, and even with intentional naps, there is no way to catch up on missed sleep.

I slept very late today. I hadn’t intended to. I went to bed early with a stomachache, and slept until I was refreshed, which was quite late. I needed the sleep apparently. I was surprised at how much I needed it considering I actually got a lot of sleep over the weekend.

I had the privilege of attending a weekend retreat guided by Terry and Darlene Wildman. You’ll hear more about them (and the retreat) in an upcoming post. The retreat was centered around the First Nations Version of the New Testament, and the weekend was filled with music, Scripture, prayer, and really good, deep conversation. I usually have a difficult time settling down on retreat to sleep. Even though, I’m very comfortable at the retreat house, I just can’t quiet my mind. This retreat gave me the exact opposite experience. I went to sleep every night before midnight (sometimes long before) and woke up refreshed at around seven in the morning, with an alarm, and the sunrise out of my window.

At the end of the retreat, I had another event through the Cursillo movement. I had to drive out, and on my way, I decided to take a quick stop at the St. Kateri Shrine. I was so close, and after the weekend enveloped in Native spirituality, I felt the pull to sit on that holy ground, near to where St. Kateri was baptized. I decided to face the seven directions that we prayed with (East, South, West, North, Above, Below, Inward), and after a few more moments, I proceeded with my drive.

I wasn’t tired. I was refreshed. Except for last night’s stomachache, I felt great, and didn’t think I needed any extra sleep or naps.

My body told me something different.

This is my reminder to you that even though you may feel fine, feel rested, feel awakened, your body may tell you something different. Try and take the opportunities when they arise to get the rest you need, whether it’s deep sleep, resting your eyes, sitting in nature with no other thoughts. Rest, not only your body, but your thoughts.

The photo below is the (four) directions I faced at the St. Kateri Shrine. East begins in the top left, and follows the direction of the sun, what we now call clockwise.

St. Kateri Tekakwitha Shrine,
Fonda, NY
(c)2023