On the gift of women's friendship...

You know, yesterday's encounter with a group of men calling out that I was a guy (see previous blog) got me thinking about my precious friendships with some very wonderful women most (though not all) of whom are non-transsexual.

I realised that however much I might find myself being immersed in lived womanhood 24/7 (which is a quietly but deeply wondrous thing in itself!) I remain, courtesy of certain physical characteristics of appearance (please! donations gratefully accepted! my surgeon is waiting) and my openness about my condition, a visible example of the transsexual woman and thus am able to readily arouse in people whatever thoughts and feelings they may have about those of us with that condition.

So I realised what a BIG thing it was for my friends to bestow upon me the precious and wondrous gift of their friendship...their acceptance, their willingness to stand alongside me in public; to have coffee with me in the mall, to go shopping with me, to just walk alongside me in the street - me the tallest woman in the known universe (hell no I ain't - I'm a measly li'l ol' 6' 4") but you know what I mean - I am fairly noticeable. Plus you know I tend not to wear the amorphous, colourless, shapeless garb that goes for women's dress among my age group. Yep! Li'l miss Paula does like her floral hippie skirts and white sandals and butterfly brooches, doesn't she? No hope, for some people is there (like superannuated hippie chicks stuck in the seventies!)?

I am kidding (kinda). I do wear other things!

I thought particularly of the fact that a friend has suggested we get together soon in the naked, all woman, everything's on show setting of the Korean baths. When I go there (as I have already on a couple of occasions with other friends) I notice other women looking at me, can hear the cogs going round. Oh! they smile nicely at me but I'm sure they've sized up what kind of woman I am (mind you that includes, I think, other things as well as me just being transsexual). I do appreciate that their willingness to accompany me in that setting particularly is a special sign of their willingness to risk being counted as well as a great acknowledgement of my womanhood.

Sooo...I love them very much and appreciate them enormously, appreciate and treasure the GIFT that they give. Their beauty, their strength, their intelligence and insight, their creativity and talent, their acceptance, their tolerance, their intimacy and sympathy and empathy, their joy and their sorrow, their sharing, their solitude, their openness, their boundaries, their challenge...their uniqueness of being.

THANKYOU!