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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (March 21, 2008)
26ìjuStpUt MARCH 21, 2008 steady ebb and flow of inhale-exhale, inhale-exhale, I go round the same time I was coming out, I became fasci on an inner quest to reconcile inner aspects and solve nated with astrology. I won problems. Or I simply rest. I come out of the meditative dered why, after thousands of state refreshed and renewed. At times, my imagination years of human culture, was piques. At others, my spirit rests. Meditation is a time this “science” still around? What wisdom did it contain for me to rest more deeply than I often do in sleep. Even that had kept it from passing into the ether, like so many other superstitions? What truths, if any, could it tell me I? What do 1 feel? Who do 1 love?” and seeks answers in sleep your brain is running around, unspooling from the day’s activities. During meditation, your entire mind can relax, rest and rejuvenate. This process is transfor mational to your psyche, soul and spirit. Until I read Mark Thompson’s books, this is where I in many ways. “You have to take the energy of coming out,” gay poet and author Paul Monette says, “and then was on my spiritual journey. His works have opened up a whole new realm for you have to study.” Let the burst of freedom from com ing out propel you into the work of determining who you my imagination. Now I have characters, the gay arche types, from whom I can draw strength when I recognize their traits inside myself. Continuity with millennia of my gay predecessors affirms who I am. This recognition about myself? During the coming-out process, one asks: “Who am are, 1 think he means. Spend time inside yourself work ing out your inner life. Whatever the avenue—through psychotherapy, breath work, yoga, dream analysis, medi- tatipn, in reaction to illness—the point is to look inside is a form of acceptance to the universal unconscious ness of my gay forefathers. Finally, I’m a part of a team where I know what I’m doing, who I am. The way I express myself, how I foster my interests and talents, are all right and good and, above all, need to be expressed. So ciety needs them, because the collective unconscious creates only what it needs. When you can find the child inside yourself, and comfort him, when you can come to reconcile yourself to old memo ries, bad relationships, embodied emo THE COMING-OUT PROCESS HELPS GAY MEN LEARN MORE ABOUT WHO WE ARE and begin to know your own inner terrain called soul. tions, you can come to accept yourself as you were then and as the man you are now. , With self-acceptance comes dramatic healing. And for the first time, often, you can accept the love that someone else has for you. Why After some astrological research, I learned that I’m now? Because you know in your innermost being that a Cancer sun, Gemini rising, Taurus moon, bom in you are worthy of love, because you have at least one the Year of the Ox. In layman’s terms, I’m respectively: person who already loves you: you. a passionate, emotional homebody who’s intellectually through physical touch. I am hardworking and deter As a person coming out, I was desperate to learn more about who I was. Now I realize my urge to learn was my soul trying to emerge, to resound on the ins’ide mined and can “carry the weight of the world on my with the truth of who I was. I had to work to discover shoulders”—like a plodding water buffalo through a rice that person. curious (and quite a talker) and who loves to be loved Now I know that my next step is to do my small part field. You may ask, didn’t I already know these things to generate, engender, envision, practice, pray for, pro about myself? Some of them, yes. And when the stars mote and expect peace. I can do my part to bridge the confirmed them, I perked up to listen to what else they millenia between matriarchy, patriarchy and the com might teach me. Do I think astrology is a predictor of ing balance of the two. 1 believe we must each accept life? Not necessarily. Do 1 think it points to one’s es and celebrate our roles as enlightened gay folk and un cover the archetypes and roles for our lesbian, queer and ♦ sential nature? Yes, I do. As a professional communicator, I need my private time. During my meditation, my chatty brain falls silent and rests. After just a few minutes of listening to the OPEN 9 am - 10 pm DOWNTOWN women’s CENTER W oman - owned clinic R un by W omen for W omen with DAILY Grocery choices forali diets and budgets member-owned, open to all! K indness , S ensitivity and R espect 3 • 2 S 7 • Visit us on the web: www.downtownwomenscenter.com Call (5»3) 224-3435 or (800) 742-9292 511 SW 10th Ave., Suite 905 Portland, OR 5 0 1500 NÉ Alberta Street 4 transgender brothers and sisters, so we can venture to the beyond. —GW You are welcome here! Easter Service Sunday, March 23, 2008 10:00 am. 11:00 am Easter Egg Hunt 4790 SE Logus Road Milwaukie, Oregon 3 3 503-654-6770 www.albertagrocery.coop s www. Ka i rosL7CC.org
