Luky
SOME OF THE WORST MISERY AND ANGUISH OF MIND IN THE WORLD IS CAUSED BY FEAR OF WHAT OTHERS THINK ABOUT ONE.
What a waste of time.
Come to think of it, what person in your circle of acquaintances is absolutely perfect in your eyes?
I have stopped going to tea parties and giving them, because somewhere along the line I always hear myself saying things like: "Please don't tell Alice what I said, but you know she hasn't a clue about child raising."
At home I'm safe, my children don't gossip and to my husband at least I never needed to say: "Please don't tell Alice . . . " and that was most relaxing.
Went with it
I used to worry a lot about making a good impression on people at one time, and when I didn't succeed it would make me most unhappy.
I wasted some of my best years moping.
Then one day it occurred to me that, no matter what I did or said, some people would remark:
"Isn't she a shot in the arm?" and others: "Boy, what a pain in the neck!"
Once I'd accepted that I began to enjoy life.
When I first went to school in South Africa, my chatty ways made little impression on my teachers.
After the first term a report card arrived on which my conduct was tersely described in the words: "Talkative and quarrelsome." I still don't know whether to laugh or to cry when I recall how eagerly I ran for my English-Dutch dictionary to find out what these big words meant, so that I could tell my parents.
In the middle
As the years went by I grew tired of licking my wounds. Being the centre of a talkative and quarrelsome family I am too busy to worry about my popularity or lack of it.
Still, there are times when I feel that people might mind their p's and q's somewhat when talking to me, if not for my sake then surely for their own, especially when I expected a baby.
"You've picked up a lot of weight," someone said one day.
I laughed: "I'm going to have a baby," I said.
She literally shrieked out for all to hear:
"What? Again?"
Some years before that would have caused me to assume a wig, sunglasses and a headscarf in order to appear incognito until after the happy event.
Cool comeback
As it was I just said: "You make it sound as if it were the fifteenth, instead of only the fifth. What will you say when I'm expecting my tenth, I wonder?" and the lady beside her whom I didn't know thought that so funny that she nearly choked in her tea. [So alright, I do go to a tea party now and then.]
Then there is an odd sort of expression that many people used when addressing me years ago:
"Are you still walking!" they used to ask with an exasperation as if they kept me in shoe leather.
That was until I thought of a good answer:
"Yes, I am," I would say, tongue in cheek, "but only until the baby comes. After that I'm going to do handstands and cartwheels all over the place."
Catherine Nicolette
Dad had been telling us his Celtic stories again. Wide-eyed, we huddled around as he spoke of dark nights, owls hooting and fingers tapping against window panes.
He imitated the howl and terrifying sweep of the banshee; and spoke of things of long ago.
He would always recount our favourite story, Treasure Island.
Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver became as familiar to us kids as the neighbours next door.
Every now and then, we'd cuddle up around Dad and plead with him, 'Tell us a story! Tell us a story!'
He knew the drill. He'd start in his storyteller's voice, "It was a dark, cold night. The wind was howling through the eaves. A tap . . . tap . . . tapping sound came slowly up the road ..." and we'd wait wide-eyed for tales of adventure and other lands.
Anyhow. Dad had also, in one of his anecdotal moods, told us about Celtic faerie queens, changeling babes, and fairy rings.
The idea of mushrooms in a ring fascinated me, and thereafter I used to dedicatedly hunt the kikuyu grass for any mushroom in sight.
In the subtropical heat of South Africa, mushrooms didn't abound. But sometimes, you were lucky.
I got into the habit of early rising, climbing through the high bedroom window and swinging through the great peach tree which lived next to it.
Then I'd go - still pyjamas clad - and dance on the lawn.
One day in soft summer - after some recent rains - I found a somewhat haphazard ring of mushrooms on the lawn.
Delighted with life, I closed my eyes and started dancing in the middle of the ring.
Maybe - just maybe - I'd see the beautiful Queen of the Faeries.
And thus it was that Dad - up early, and coming out to admire the sunrise - found his little offspring in summer pyjamas dancing with pointed toes on the lawn.
"What are you doing?" he asked in surprise. "Look, Dad, there's a fairy ring here," I told him. "I'm dancing so that maybe I can see the Faerie Queen."
"No, no, no," said Dad, "True fairy rings only exist in Ireland. They don't show up here in Africa."
I was indignant. "Well, that's not true," I said, indicating the mushrooms which at a stretch of imagination loosely described a circle.
"Those are Irish fairy rings. This here is a South African fairy ring.
They're totally different. Now in Ireland there'll be an Irish faery queen, here in South Africa there'll be a South African faery queen."
Having explained this to my satisfaction, I stood awaiting his response.
Dad's eyes twinkled at me from his - at the time to me - great height.
"Well, who'd ever have thought this family would one day have our very own little Miss Jumping Joan?" he said, and returned indoors to oversee breakfast pancakes . . .
Here I am, Little Jumping Joan
http://www.mamalisa.com/?t=es&p=1515
With thanks to mamalisa.com
Catherine Nicolette
As a little girl, my identity was clear to me; I was a girl. So were my female peers.
For the boys I knew, life was clear too. They were boys; and so were their male peers.
I knew, too, that God created male and female, and blessed them. This was clear from Genesis Chapter 5, verse 2.
I believed that there was only male and female; until I became aware of a further blessing God created.
Within His creation of male and female, lies further detail; some are born with both male and female characteristics.
Discernment
During my childhood, I became aware of the journey some undergo, attempting to discern whether they are inherently male or female.
The reason for this need for discernment is the fact that their bodies have been blessed by nature with both attributes.
As teenagers, those with both attributes undergo the process of having to come to terms with their unique bodies. As do we all.
So it was from my very earliest years that I was aware that nature brings forth male, female and hermaphrodite.
Transgender
Which brings me to the transgender issue. There are many who struggle with issues surrounding their physical identity.
Some experience gender dysphoria.
Gender dysphoria occurs when there is a persistent sense of mismatch between one's experienced gender and assigned gender.
Gender dysphoria is defined by strong, persistent feelings of identification with the opposite gender and discomfort with one's own assigned gender that results in significant distress or impairment.
Words of Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, gives us clear guidance as to how to treat others in all circumstances.
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." [John 13:34-35].
If we follow Christ's command, we will be understanding and supportive towards others on their life path which may be different to our own.
Emotional and spiritual path
I witnessed the deeply painful emotional and spiritual path hermaphroditic peers walked with such dignity, those many years ago.
Their quiet example made me very aware that loving support from family and friends is essential for those struggling with physical attribute and identity issues.
Excellent support from family, school, friends, medical and psychological personnel can help those coming to peace within themselves as to their authentic identity.
Let us pray for them, and be as supportive as we can.
Each person's life faces particular challenges.
Let us prove a godly support to each person we meet, as they bloom into the full person God created them to be.
