musingsoflys

[musingsoflys]

Hmm. 🤔

(TW: Religion/Spirituality, mixed pronouns for God)

My dear lgbt+ kids,

Maybe trans people are proof that God exists.

Maybe God purposefully made trans people to show us She exists.

That may feel like a provocative statement - we’re so used to even the most trans-supportive religious arguments sounding like, “Maybe God doesn’t hate you despite going against the rules He created.” So it can feel strange, even uncomfortable, to suggest the opposite: that you are not a disruption of divine order, but a vital and powerful part of it.

This will not fit every belief system (I don’t think anything ever does), and you don’t need to integrate it into yours. But think about it this way:

The fact that trans people exist proves that humans are more than just flesh. We are more than bodies that ultimately will only make decisions that secure food, sleep, and procreation. We are spirit, we are souls. We have something deep inside us that says: “This is who I am, and this is what I need.” And somehow, we know to trust that voice, even when everyone around us tells us not to.

What is that voice, if not sacred? What is gender euphoria, if not a glimpse of God’s love?

Following that voice in this world is not easy. It is not comfortable or convenient. And yet - trans people exist. We have always existed. Across all centuries, continents, and cultures, we keep showing up. We keep becoming ourselves. That’s not a glitch in God’s plan. That is part of the plan.

And why wouldn’t we be? After all, we are a powerful testimony to creation. Our lives show that God’s creation is not static, not limited to binaries, not finished. That Her creation is ongoing. Expansive. Bold. So loving that They allow us to partake in it.

With all my love, Your Tumblr Dad

[musingsoflys]

[musingsoflys]

[musingsoflys]

[musingsoflys]

The body is a creative, shape-shifting entity. Certainly, it has its finite character and style, its unique textures and temperaments that distinguish it from other bodies; yet these mortal limits in no way close me off from the things around me or render my relations to them wholly predictable and determinate. On the contrary, my finite bodily presence alone is what enables me to freely engage the things around me, to choose to affiliate with certain persons or places, to insinuate myself in other lives. Far from restricting my access to things and to the world, the body is my very means of entering into relation with all things.

The Spell of the Sensuous

David Abram

[musingsoflys]

The oligarchs won't give you anything.

You have to FIGHT. #Unions #WorkerSolidarity

[musingsoflys]

I have a controversial idea too. If you don't want people to do something, don't tell them to do it. You tell people that if they never go to school, they deserve to work for a poverty wage forever. Now you tell them that if they do go to school, they deserve to be in debt forever.

Here's another controversial idea. Going into debt to get an education shouldn't even be an option.

[musingsoflys]

[musingsoflys]

[musingsoflys]

O M G the DUMB part! ! ! ! I was supposed to have a Dr's appointment a month ago, & I was going to bring up feeling like I've lost half my brain over the past year (especially) but it got rescheduled. Please send start healthy vibes to my doc for my next- first appointment.

Gather around, my young friends and fellow dinosaurs, let me tell you about some BULLSHIT no one ever tells you about. I'm talking about menopause and perimenopause. Now, menopause has a very stringent medical definition. You have to not have had a period for exactly 12 months and a day to be considered in menopause. All the bullshit before that day once you start going through The Change is considered perimenopause. Here's some bullshit you might experience that people actually talk about when you're in perimenopause:

- shorter time between periods

- irregular periods

- hot flashes and/or cold flashes

- fucked up sleep

- OMG NIGHT SWEATS

- Vagina as dry as the Sahara desert

- lighter periods and/or endless bleeding like it's The Flood but it's in your pants

- lack of interest in Adult Fun Times

This time of joy can last anywhere from a couple of years to a god damn decade and there's no medical way right now to predict it.

Here's some of the REAL bullshit they don't tell you about but your dinosaur aunt is here to let you know:

- You can start perimenopause in your 30s, don't listen to idiot doctors who tell you you're "too young" because they don't know your body like you do.

- Perimenopause will make you HELLA DUMB. Seriously, I'm talking Bigly broken brain. Brain fog? Check. Short term memory? Wave goodbye to it. Ability to make words form out of thoughts? Yeah, good luck to you.

- Perimenopause can cause horrible fatigue because in addition to losing estrogen, you're also losing testosterone. Oh and that also leads to muscle wasting, cool cool.

- Things might suddenly hurt more because estrogen is known to be neuroprotective.

- If you're super lucky like I am, and like to collect rare illnesses, you might even get Burning Mouth Syndrome 💀

- And meanwhile, while you're going through this bullshit, you'll be getting gaslit by doctors who are operating based on 30 year old debunked data about how HRT causes breast cancer (not really) and that they shouldn't put you on it until you're in actual menopause. (Data shows starting HRT early can potentially prevent Alzheimer's in later years.)

- There are entire online clinics right now (I use Midi Health) focused on providing care for peri and menopausal patients and they will happily prescribe you HRT even if your regular PCP or OBGYN do not (if you meet the criteria). I've been pretty impressed with how holistically they view the patient. For full disclosure, I learned about them from my integrative health doctor and they do not accept Medicare (yet).

I'm 46 years old right now and I've been symptomatic for perimenopause for the last 8 years, although it's gotten the most dramatic in the past 2 years or so, which I hope means I'm almost done, holy hell. Yeah I was on the early side, but if it can happen to me, it can happen to you, so it's never too early to think about these things. And I hope to at least spare some of you the mind-fuckery I've been through because no one told me about most of this stuff, including my own mother who just DOESN'T REMEMBER what happened to her and now I completely understand why. And because I also have a connective tissue disease, I used to just dismiss my pain and fatigue as being caused by that illness rather than the loss of hormones.

Anyways, this is why we need Elders in our lives, so they can do Grandma Story Hour like I just did and validate you when the entire medical field tries to gaslight you. I hope you've found some or all of this educational/useful. Please share with your friends because we really do NOT talk about this stuff enough. (Ewwww Moon Blood!)

Stay well, and don't let the bastards grind you down!

[musingsoflys]

[musingsoflys]

Could be useful

You think “oh it would be useful to learn how to identify my thrifted yarn and clothing” and before you know it you’ve been recruited by fiber witches giving out their spells willy nilly, again

[musingsoflys]

[musingsoflys]

[musingsoflys]

🤔🤔🤔

There was one quality of mind which seemed to be of special and extreme advantage in leading him [Charles Darwin] to make discoveries. It was the power of never letting exceptions pass unnoticed. Everybody notices a fact as an exception when it is striking or frequent, but he had a special instinct for arresting an exception. A point apparently slight and unconnected with his present work is passed over by many a man almost unconsciously with some half-considered explanation, which is in fact no explanation. It was just these things that he seized on to make a start from. In a certain sense there is nothing special in this procedure, many discoveries being made by means of it. I only mention it because, as I watched him at work, the value of this power to an experimenter was so strongly impressed upon me.

The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, Volume I

[musingsoflys]

[musingsoflys]