Releasing my Secret Blog

Inspired perhaps by Brené Brown's TED talk on vulnerability, and perhaps by the reflective space in which I find myself in the wake of my stepfather's death, I've decided to post from my "secret blog." This is a blog I started in 2004 after asking myself, "What would I write if I was planning to post it publicly, but knew that I wouldn't be identified?" The blog covers a journey from depression to hope, working through long-buried fears about my father's mental illness, jousting with my identity as a person of faith and, eventually, coming to terms with having a transgender child.

It seems like the right time to release it, and perhaps it will be of help to someone. And it does contain some of the most vulnerable things I've ever said on any public forum--even anonymously. The one I'm posting this morning is about being in the grip of despair, as I was for many years. It offers no solutions; it simply acknowledges. If you are there now, I want to tell you that it does get better. http://gardenofmirth.blogspot.com/2006/01/demon-of-despair.html