YOU, BEING STRAIGHT…IS TOO MUCH FOR ME TO HANDLE.

I am so tired of people saying, “he’s too gay” or  “that’s so gay”.  This automatically suggests that there is something wrong or negative about the word or being gay.  I am also tired of people becoming frustrated or complaining that there is too much gay news everywhere.  Yeah right, too much gay news of bullied teens committing suicide or states denying the LGBT community some fundamental basic rights.

I knew I was gay for a long time, as far as I can remember, but I also knew that the time was not right for me to ‘come out’, as a matter-of-fact, I feared that it wasn’t safe for me to come out.  During the time that I lived as a shadow of who I was supposed to be I felt despair, anxiety, depression, anger, hate, confusion and the isolated.  I could relate to the oppression women or how people of colour felt and no-one should be made to feel so unloved or unwanted.

I could understand how activists become aggressive in their fight for equality especially after you have been oppressed and even put to death for fighting for equality.  There was a time when people of colour were not allowed to be in the same spaces as white people  – not very long ago either.  There was a time when women couldn’t vote.  Today, homosexuality is still punishable by death in many countries.  Yet, I am told that I can’t have a gay pride parade because straight people don’t have straight pride. 

I have heard people saying that it is too much for them to handle people ‘gayness’ – like it’s a bad habit such a smoking or drinking too much – I wonder how offended they would get if I told them (with all my GAY PROUDNESS) how offended I am with their straightness?  Well, you would never hear that from me because it is not conducive to creating good energy.

For all those gay people who are struggling with their sexuality and authenticity – I am here to tell you.  ALL WILL BE BETTER, just embrace and love who you are.  You will be surprised of all the allies you will have both straight and gay.  People who only see you as the loving and beautiful person you are.  There is nothing wrong with you because you are a reflection of who created you!

Here are some great and POSITIVE quotes regarding homosexuality from some people you may or may not know…..they will surprise you:

“If a bullet should ever enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door.”Harvey Milk

“The only queer people are those who don’t love anybody.”Rita Mae Brown

 “We are sick of hearing people say, “That band is so gay,” or “Those guys are fags.”  Gay is not a synonym for shitty.  If you wanna say something’s shitty, say it’s shitty.  Stop being such homophobic assholes.” – Pete Wentz

“Anybody can be unhappy.  We can all be hurt.  You don’t have to be poor to need something or somebody.  Rednecks, hippies, misfits – we’re all the same.  Gay or straight?  So what?  It doesn’t matter to me.  We have to be concerned about other people, regardless.”Willie Nelson

“Some people think I am gay, which I think is awesome.”Daniel Radcliffe

“My thoughts on gay marriage are that everyone has the right to love and to be loved, and that’s the position I take.”Nick Jonas

“The poetry you read has been written for you, each of you – black, white, Hispanic, man, woman, gay, straight.”Maya Angelou

“From a religious point of view, if God had thought homosexuality is a sin, he would not have created gay people.”Howard Dean

“Tell me:  When God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?…It is necessary to accompany them with mercy.”Pope Francis

“I could be wrong, but I think heterosexual marriage is threatened more by heterosexuals.  I don’t know why gay marriage challenges my marriage in any way.”Elizabeth Edwards

“My life has been immensely enriched by gay mentors, colleagues and friends, any discrimination and persecution of gay people is unacceptable.”Mikhail Baryshnikov

“By large in this country the issue of gay rights and equality should be past the point of debate.  Really, there should be no debate anymore.”Scott Fujita

“Just being out you’re doing your part.  It’s like recycling.  You’re doing your part for the environment if you recycle; you’re doing your part for the gay movement if you’re out.” – Martina Navratilova

“It should never be a crime to be gay.”Hillary Clinton

“Gay people are born everyday.  You will never legislate that away.”Melissa Etheridge

“I have some good friends of my own who happen to be gay, and when it comes to gay, straight or whatever, I’m for anything life-affirmative.  I’m for gay power, straight power, male power, female power; everybody should feel empowered without oppressing anyone who’s different.”Matthew McConaughey

“I kind of cheer the presence of any gay characters at all – I think the more we can saturate television with any gay character or lesbian character or transgender character, I think that’s a really great thing.  We’re kind of getting past the fact that they’re the punchline or that they’re the novelty.”Jesse Tyler Ferguson

“Yeah, I had gay friends.  The first thing I realized was that everybody’s different, and it becomes obvious that all of the gay stereotypes are ridiculous.”Bruce Springsteen

“Americans know as much about Canada as straight people do about gays.  Americans arrive at the border with skis in July, and straight people think that being gay is just a phase.  A very long phase.”Scott Thompson

“I’m for all kinds of gay rights.  I’m almost like a gay man myself.”NeNe Leakes

“Even in high school, I had friends that I didn’t know were gay until years later.  I’d find out on Facebook or something and be like, ‘Oh, that explains some things,’ or ‘Wow, no wonder they were so cool.”Kellan Lutz

“Gay men in a very real way created my career.”Marianne Williamson

“I know gay – gay people who aren’t married who are better parents than some, you know, straight people I know who are married.”Dennis Leary

“I did a woman’s movie, and I’m not a woman.  I did a gay movie, and I’m not gay.  I learned as I went along.”Ang Lee

“People were saying that David Geffen and I had gotten married and it just blew me away.  Not that they thought I was gay, but that they thought I could land a guy that hot.”Keanu Reeves

And the most important quote of all (joking)……

“My sexuality doesn’t define who I am as a person – it is the way that I treat others that defines me.”Robert Pavao

Together, we can make the world a more positive one!

THE POWER OF FORGIVENESS

There have been many things in my life that have and continue to allow me to reach my full potential, things like; lacking confidence or motivation but, the one thing that has really held me back in moving forward with my life is forgiving those who did me wrong.  I felt that forgiving them was actually giving them justification for what they did do me.  I continued to hang onto to my hate, anger and distaste towards those who wronged me until I learned that the only person that I was hurting was myself.  Anger and hate doesn’t promote healing, hanging onto these emotions and feelings only allow disease to fester and grow within you.  I learned that forgiving people who have emotionally and physically harmed me, doesn’t mean that you have to forget what they did to you – it just means that you can let go of the feelings associated with the harm they have inflicted.  Forgiveness is wonderful because it doesn’t assign blame to anyone – I wasn’t to blame for the hurt and pain that others caused me, and they weren’t to blame either because they were not responsible for the hurt and the pain that was inflicted upon them.  Here is what forgiveness gave back to me:

  • awareness that I was hurt
  • release for the guilt I felt about being physically and emotionally harmed
  • relief for releasing the bottled up emotions that I continued to hang onto
  • the power to create new positive and effective relationships with those who hurt me
  • love for myself and love for those I forgave  

What feelings and emotions will you be letting go of when you allow yourself to forgive those who have emotionally and physically harmed you?  Here are some powerful videos on the topic of forgiveness:

Together, we can make the world a more positive one.

 

INSPIRING QUOTES

Here are some inspiring words from some of very inspiring people:

NELSON MANDELA

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela is a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary and politician who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999.

“A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination”

“It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur.  You take the front line when there is danger.  Then people will appreciate your leadership”

“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head.  If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart”

DR. WAYNE DYER

Wayne Dyer, PH.D., is an internationally renowned author and speaker in the field of self-development. He’s the author of over 30 books, has created many audio programs and videos, and has appeared on thousands of television and radio shows.

“How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours”

“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change”

“What we think determines what happens to us, so if we want to change our lives, we need to stretch our minds”

LOUISE L. HAY

RECENTLY DUBBED “the closest thing to a living saint” by the Australian media, Louise L. Hay is also known as one of the founders of the self-help movement. Her first book, Heal Your Body, was published in 1976, long before it was fashionable to discuss the connection between the mind and body.

“I find that when we really love and accept and approve of ourselves exactly as we are, then everything in life works”

“If you are willing to do the mental work, almost anything can be healed”

“All the events you have experienced in your lifetime up to this moment have been created by your thoughts and beliefs you have held in the past. They were created by the thoughts and words you used yesterday, last week, last month, last year, 10, 20, 30, 40, or more years ago, depending on how old you are”

MARIANNE WILLIAMSON

Marianne Williamson is an internationally acclaimed spiritual author and lecturer. Six of her ten published books have been New York Times Best Sellers. Four of these have been #1 New York Times Best Sellers. A Return to Love is considered a must-read of The New Spirituality. A paragraph from that book, beginning “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure...” is considered an anthem for a contemporary generation of seekers.

“Forgiveness is not always easy.  At times, it feels more painful than the wound we suffered, to forgive the one that inflicted it.  And yet, there is no peace without forgiveness”

“The practice of forgiveness is our most important contribution to the healing of the world”

“Love is what we were born with.  Fear is what we learned”

BILL CLINTON

William Jefferson “Bill” Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001.

“If you live long enough, you’ll make mistakes.  But if you learn from them, you’ll be a better person.  It’s how you handle adversity, not how it affects you.  The main thing is never quit, never quit, never quit”

“Let me say this as clearly as I can:  No matter how sharp a grievance or how deep a hurt, there is no justification for killing innocents”

“We must teach our children to resolve their conflicts with words, not with weapons”

WARREN BUFFET

Warren Edward Buffett is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is widely considered the most successful investor of the 20th century.

“Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago”

“Emotional makeup is more important than technical skill”

DAVID SUZUKI

David Takayoshi Suzuki, is a Japanese Canadian academic, science broadcaster and environmental activist. Suzuki earned a Ph. D in zoology from the University of Chicago  in 1961, and was a professor in the genetics department at the University of British Columbia from 1963 until his retirement in 2001. Since the mid-1970s, Suzuki has been known for his TV and radio series and books about nature and the environment. He is best known as host of the popular and long-running CBC Television science magazine, The Nature of Things, seen in over forty nations. He is also well-known for criticizing governments for their lack of action to protect the environment.
 
“Education has failed in a very serious way to convey the most important lesson science can teach: skepticism”
 
“If we pollute the air, water and soil that keep us alive and well, and destroy the biodiversity that allows natural systems to function, no amount of money will save us”
 
“For the sake of our health, our children and grandchildren and even our economic well-being, we must make protecting the planet our top priority”
 
 
INGRID NEWKIRK
 
Ingrid Newkirk is an English-born British American animal rights activist and the president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the world’s largest animal rights organization.
 
“When it comes to having a central nervous system, and the ability to feel pain, hunger and thirst, a rat is a pig is a dog is a boy”
 
“Being asked to support humane meat means being asked to support the suffering of animals in transport, to approve of treatment that causes them palpable fear, their bodies shaking and their eyes wide as saucers, as they are slung by their legs into crates that are slammed onto the back of a truck”
 
“I think if you are against cruelty and you look at what happens to animals in slaughterhouses and on factory farms, you have to be completely against eating meat”
 
JOHN LENNON 
 
John Winston Ono Lennon, was an English musician, singer and songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as a founder member of the Beatles, the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed band in the history of popular music.
 
“Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans”
 
“I believe in God, but not as one thing, not as an old man in the sky.  I believe that what people call God is something in all of us.  I believe that what Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha and all the rest said was right.  It’s just that the translations have gone wrong”
 
“If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there’d be peace”
 
WOODY HARRELSON
 
Actor, environmental activist, ethical vegan and raw foodist and supporter for the legalization of marijuana and hemp.
 
“The war against terrorism is terrorism”
 
“I think my best skill in this whole deal is as a conduit to try to bring people together, because I think it’s in our unity that we’ll have the greatest strength”
 
“The common man or women, whether they are Israeli or Palestinian or Catholic or Iraqi or American, the common man just wants to live in peace and justice in a clean environment.  When we look around the world and we see that is not the case, we know the will of the majority is not being listened to, that’s the first sign that our system is broken”
 
“There are a helluva lot more of us who care about our environment in the world than we realize.  We’re the majority, and we can do something about that” 
 
HARVEY MILK
 
Harvey Bernard Milk was an American politician who became the first openly gay person to be elected to public office in California when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
 
“Hope will never be silent”
 
“If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door”
 
“It takes no compromising to give people their rights.  It takes no money to respect the individual.  It takes no survey to remove repressions”
 
“Coming out is the most political thing you can do”
 
REPRESENTATIVE JOHN LEWIS
 
John Robert Lewis is an American politician and civil rights leader. He is the U.S. Representative for Georgia’s 5th congressional district, serving since 1987, and is the dean of the Georgia congressional delegation.
 
“I say to people today, ‘You must be prepared if you believe in something.   If you believe in something, you have to go for it.  As individuals, we may not live to see the end”
 
“When I was 15 years old in the tenth grade, I heard Martin Luther King, Jr.  Three years later, when I was 18, I met Dr. King and we became friends.  Two years after that I became very involved in the civil rights movement.  I was in college at the time.  As I got more and more involved, I saw politics as a means of bringing about change”
 
“If you’re not hopeful and optimistic, then you just give up.  You have to take that long hard look and just believe that if your consistent, you will succeed”
 
These quotes and words come from people who were and continue to be passionate about what they strongly believe in, whether that is our environment, politics, animals, human rights and freedom – they have all been and continue to be conduits for positive change.
 

Together we can make the world a more positive one!

 

DR. LISSA RANKIN: IS THERE SCIENTIFIC PROOF THAT WE CAN HEAL OURSELVES?

What is my life’s purpose – what is it that I am supposed to do?  A really loaded question and I question I have been trying to answer since I began my spiritual journey.  I have since realized the answer to those questions – the answer is:  My life’s purpose is to live and that I am supposed to do exactly what I am doing at this moment and that is to inspire anybody who is willing to listen to create positive change into the world.  All the things I do and the people who come into my life are for a purpose – and that purpose is to ensure I continue to follow my passion to create positive change.

It is amazing that by letting go and following my passion for holistic health and natural healing – how many wonderful things have happened and how my journey continues to unfold.  I have also realized that there is no rush and no need to stress myself out in order to achieve my personal, educational and life goals.  I continue pursuing my holistic health and psychotherapy designations, but I do so at my pace.

I have also enjoyed discovering so many wonderful teachers, mentors, authors and like-minded people who encourage my spiritual and professional growth, people like;  Louise L. Hay, Dr. Brian Weiss, Dr. Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, Marianne Williamson, Sonia Choquette, Gregg Bradden, Eckhart Tolle, Dalai Lama and Dr. Lissa Rankin.  These wonderful people have been pivotal in my quest to inspire positive change into the world because many of them have been doing just that for years.

I have recently watched a ‘Ted episode in which Dr. Lissa Rankin was the featured speaker.  The episode was entitled: ‘Is There Scientific Proof That We Can Heal Ourselves?’.  This topic intrigued for several reasons;  1.  I used to believe that we should rely on science and modern medicine to cure our illnesses with surgery and modern medicine and 2.  Throughout my spiritual journey, I have found that many people have already answered this question by healing themselves.

Dr. Lissa Rankin’s delivery of her research was direct, loving, funny and most importantly – passionate.  I am an advocate for natural healing and holistic medicine – medicinal drugs are my last resort.  I really appreciate a doctor who encourages me to seek natural and holistic ways of healing whatever ailments I may have – it makes me feel like they value my health as much as I do.  Dr. Lissa Rankin’s lecture not only suggests, through her research, that we can heal ourselves but there are many other factors that may contribute to our body and mind’s capability of healing itself such as; our environment, relationships, emotional state, job etc….One of the most important things that resonated with after watching her deliver her lecture to her peers is one of her quotes – “Let us put the CARE back into health care”.  Watch for your selves….I hope you experience as much joy and gratitude I experienced in watching this lecture.  Enjoy!

For more information about Dr. Lissa Rankin, please visit her website at:  www.lissarankin.com

Together, we can make the world a more positive one!

WEBSITES I ENCOURAGE YOU TO VISIT.

I have many interests by I mainly try to visit websites that encourage people to be positive and to create positive change in our world.  Here are some of my favorite’s!  Including some that keep me up on ‘pop culture’ (I don’t visit them for the gossip):

FOR WELLNESS

http://www.healyourlife.com/

http://www.louisehay.com/

http://www.hayhouse.com/

http://www.marianne.com/

http://www.dalailama.com/

http://coalitionofpositiveenergy.com/

http://www.deepakchopra.com/

HUMANE SHOPPING

https://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/store/ars/site

http://www.ethicalocean.com/welcome?destination=frontpage

http://www.peta.org/living/beauty-and-personal-care/companies/default.aspx

http://coalitionofpositiveenergy.com/ (coming soon)

ENVIRONMENT

http://www.worldwildlife.org/home-full.html

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/

http://www.earthhour.org/

http://www.davidsuzuki.org/

ANIMALS

http://coalitionofpositiveenergy.com/

http://www.peta.org

https://www.theanimalrescuesite.com

POLITICS

http://www.michaelmoore.com/

http://roseanneworld.com/

http://www.billmaher.com/

http://coalitionofpositiveenergy.com/

A BIT OF EVERYTHING (including Pop Culture)

http://www.towleroad.com/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/

http://www.miafarrow.org/

http://naomiwolf.org/

http://www.billboard.com/

http://www.kristinew.com/

http://coalitionofpositiveenergy.com/

http://madonnalicious.typepad.com/madonnalicious/

I hope that you  shop, visit, share, follow and enjoy the above websites.  You can receive so much important (and not-so-important) information on all of these sites, information that will assist you in transforming your life into a more positive and rewarding one!  You can also have a little fun to!

Thanks for your support – may your day be filled with love, light and positive energy!