LISA SALAZAR — BLOG

Another friend,  Susan Cottrel,  also invited me to write some thoughts.  This is the link to her blog,  FreedHearts :  http://freedhearts.wordpress.com/2014/05/23/can-i-trust-you-with-a-secret/   I invite you to visit her blog. Do you have a secret? How big is it? How do you think people will respond if they find out? Disclosure, revelation, exposure, or whatever word you may have for it is a visceral, frightening process. Especially if the information is so sensitive, some would prefer death by flaying. But in fact, that is what disclosure is all about, peeling away the layers that hide the “body” of truth. Perhaps that is why it can be so traumatic. On October 2007, I began disclosing to family and friends that I had been diagnosed with acute gender dysphoria—that I was “transgender.” I had already lived eight years with this verdict; it took me that long to reconcile myself and my faith to my diagnosis. The news shocked everyone; only ...

A friend,  Matthias Roberts,  recently invited me to write some thoughts on belonging. He said this: "Specifically, if you could share a story on a time where you felt that you truly belonged — even if it was just for a moment." He published my response today (May 17, 2014), so I'm sharing it here too. This is the link to his blog,  Not Boring Yet :  http://notboringyet.com/saturday-stories/belonging-saturday-stories/   I invite you to visit his blog and read some of the other stories from other contributors. I felt like I did not know how to pray for nearly two decades. Oh, I prayed, but my sense was that my prayers were ineffective—like lead balloons—my prayers didn’t even reach the ceiling, let alone G_d, or so I thought. The very public process of transitioning seemed so drastic and unfair. After all, the struggle with my gender identity was a very private matter. Why was the solution—if, in fact, to tra...