To my loved ones near and far: as I prepare to have this surgery in the morning I am thinking of all of you. This is a big surgery but Ill likely wake in pain but on the road to recovery, nonetheless I feel compelled to write to all of you and to go around my day giving stronger hugs and give my thanks to each of you. A great deal has been on my mind given recent losses to dear friends and the small but present risks associated with this surgery. My day was tinged with sweet fierce love for living and the people in my life. Gallaudet has rarely looked as beautiful as it did today shrouded in rain and mist. Gathered round in a circle to demonstrate #BlackLivesMatter standing in the rain were many of the people I wanted to reach out to today to see and hug. Many of you are far, separated by time and distance but your touch on my life has left indelible marks on my soul. Thank you. To my Gallaudet family, it is a privilege and an honor every day to come to Gally and serve this amazing community. Many students faculty and staff are people Im proud to call friend, many I call mentors, all I call gifts in my life, and some I count among my lifes chosen family. My Texan heart has never felt as rooted or connected to the land and time and place of DC so much as on these acres, and with you wonderful folks. To many in number to name here, I thank you and love you, as I have lived with you, eaten with you, struggled with you, grown with you, and loved with you. To my Jimmy Ts family and friends, thank you for waffles crispy and bacon medium, proper amounts of snark and laughter, for weekends that always start by feeling cared for. I love you. To my Austin, Beaumont and Houston Deaf and interpreter communities, no thanks are ever sufficient for all youve given me. As a teen you sheltered me and taught me the tricks of survival on the streets and shared language and laughter and new ways of being with me. As a young man you taught me to care and serve the community as you taught me to care for myself and you challenged me to grow always as a professional and as a man. Too many of you matter to tag, so a collective i love you and thank you will have to do. To my Burner family and to Kingdom of Slack in particular, I love you for the possibilities you create, for the freedom you gave me to revel, in my absurdities and in yours, and for the world we create from time to time by our gifts of service to each other. Some of you are among my nearest and dearest and have been by my side for years. You know who you are and know Im holding you tight tonight. Thank you and I love you. To my family, Blood, Foster and adopted, what can I say? You are part of me, we have laughed cried, fought, hollered and hugged, held hands in union and struggled to live across great differences. I love you and thank you for walking through life with me. To those especially who fostered me and took a stranger into your family, I am blessed to have had such angels amidst the horrors my life showed me and scarred me with. Most people never understand what is meant by the famous Native saying Today is a good day to die, they interpret it to mean a death wish, or a bad ass bit of warrior bravado. That is not its meaning. I know its meaning, and especially today. It means I love my life dearly, it means I have lived it well and truly, and measured most of it as though each moment mattered and could be spoken well of if it were the last. I have screwed up innumerable times, done harm to others that I rue deeply, and missed opportunities to love and increase love in the world and have regrets, but all in all what a life I have lived! Thank you to all of you, know that I love you with a light that could burn through the greatest darkness and I hope our lives have increased each others fire and joy. #SeeYouOnTheFlipSideOfThisHurdle #CutMeImReady
Posted on: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 04:08:11 +0000
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