Support...

I just watched a trailer for a movie coming out next month called "Boy Erased." Then I watched an interview with a few of the cast members, it's about a boy coming out to his parents and the father being a pastor sent him to conversion therapy camp. Often these camps use abuse, starvation and punishments as part of the "therapy" and should be abolished. The film has an uplifting message from what I saw about it, in the end anyway, and so can bring hope to those in the same situation.Not only this but with all the negative crap out there on social media these days. Well, not only there but that's the only outlet I have to news since I do not watch the news, but with Trump and all the stuff going on in almost every country these days it seems there is no shortage of "bad" news to be seen and heard, so I wanted to write something positive.

I have to say that in my life I have had the good karma to be a receiver of much privilege. Now I know I'm a white male, so I automatically have that privilege going on, but also my family is wonderful and my friends have always been wonderful and supportive as well.

This is why I titled this entry Support. So just to give a few short examples...

My mother. She has always been someone I've been close to, now in proximity we are not anymore but still in our hearts we are. When I came out to her finally, after her asking me and me lying about it and then her asking me again years later and I was honest, she did not receive it well. But after some years she wrote me a great note and mailed it to me, yes, this is what we did back then, exclaiming her love and support for me. She always encouraged me to be who I was and sometimes even thought maybe begrudgingly accepted it. There are too many instances to site so I'll just mention one, when I was leaving the U.S. and I had told her when I was still in India in February of 2016 that I would come home for the summer and but once I left again for India in the fall that I would not be coming back. So all summer we, not just she and I but also my sister and her family as well, spent much more time together than we normally would have. Then the day I was leaving she drove me to the airport and when she picked me up in the morning it was just she and I she said "well, I hate this, that you're leaving and I won't have easy access to seeing you anymore, but I'm glad that you're still doing it and following your heart." That is the kind of support one cannot usually count on, and I appreciate it.

Not just her, but all my friends that I made over the years. Even when I became Sikh and was living in the midwest, wearing a turban and sporting a 16 inch beard, and even when I just began the path they all made the effort to call me by my new name and go out in public with me. And trust me, going out in public in the midwest with a guy in a turban can get tomatoes or worse thrown at you, but they stood by me all the way.

These are just two examples, but there are many more I could share and am proud to have had these experiences. Not all in my life have been positive, but what we could label negative experiences can also be guidance to lead us to better places within ourselves and within our lives and interactions with others.

So there is not only bad stuff going on out there in the world, there is amazing stuff too. And even some of the bad stuff if viewed from a different perspective can possibly lead you to a new and more amazing place in your being, then in your life, so don't judge them too quickly. Look and say, "how can I see this from a different angle...?"