Journey of a Thousand Miles...

Dear Emily Doe, I don't know, yet I am you.  I did not survive your experience, but I survived my own horrific morning 16 years ago and another horrific night 3 and a half years ago. I don't know what it is like to be you or to live inside your forever changed mind, but I know what it is like to be terrified of your own thoughts and body.  I know what it feels like to live in a skin you desperately need to take off because it feels dirty and just plain wrong. Emily, that horrible night you became part of a club that every woman prays she will never join. You joined a club whose membership was violently forced upon you.  You joined a club in which each member is a statistic.  Yet, in joining this terrible club you earned a new label: Survivor.  While membership in this club is the loneliest experience in the world, please know, Emily, that you are far from alone.  You are a part of a group of the strongest women in the world.  We are women who have...

My heart hurts. I wish I could write something beautiful and eloquent to explain what it feels like to know that my LGBT friends and family are terrified and there is nothing I can do about it.   I keep trying to find the right words, but I can't find them. So I am simply going to use the words of another:    "Hope will never be silent." - Harvey Milk The victims of this senseless tragedy are numerous, but each person's name and life deserves to be known better than that of the monster who did the taking.   Click here to learn about and remember the victims. ("Gabriel" by SoulArtPhotography) There is a GoFundMe page set up by Florida Equality to help the victims and their families.  Here is the link:  https://www.gofundme.com/PulseVictimsFund The above photo "Gabriel" is an original work from my own collection of photos.  If anyone would like a print, I will be charging $26.00.  $16.00 of the total cost will go toward printin...