This is a "love saves" story.

We teach girls to be likeable, to be nice, to be false. And we do not teach boys the same. This is dangerous.

When I internalize cultural messages about the definitions of success or failure—or anything, really—I undermine my own sense of self-worth.

I saw a woman surrounded by the pressures to conform to adulthood, being the adult she always wanted to be when she was a child. She was as God made her, not who everyone else wanted her to be.

In real life, sometimes grief looms largest in December. Sometimes there's one too many dress-ups and the gold tulle makes your legs itch. “I just needed it to stop for a minute. Next time I will take calm breaths.”

If a friend were in my situation, I would have seen their failings as human. So why hold someone to an unforgiving standard just because that someone is me?

My heart broke the day my son stood in the bathroom crying. He handed me a pair of scissors and told me to just cut it. I told him how beautiful his hair was and how sad I would be to see him cut it.

I’m not the same person who stood in that tattoo parlor eleven years ago. Still, I don’t for a minute regret being permanently marked with this snapshot in time, of my wounds and my hope.

Spirit of Love and Power, we are gathered today in beloved community that we might manifest in our lives the values and truths that we hold dear. Let us rejoice that we are together for this time is holy time, the transformation we seek is holy work, and the bonds that hold us together are sacred.