Imbolc is one of the four most important Celtic festivals during the year. It is a sabbat that is a celebration of the end of Winter and the start of Spring. Imbolc represent a time to celebrate the hardest and coldest part of the year is over, and a new warmth and a rebirth is occurring. For my first year in Ireland I can say I have looked forward to Imbolc since Samhain. The shortness of days is ending, and warmth is coming back. I look forward to the sun, walks, and exploring outside again.
Imbolc is also the Celtic…
I went to the ráth to hideaway,
this world became too much
and so I must go away.
At the rath I met my Queen, dark and powerful,
stunning and bold, stood the Morrigan.
Queen of the Unseelie Court
eternal she never grows old.
She asked me to recount what brought me to her fort.
So this is what I gave as my report.
“My Queen I gave all I had, and ever more.
But still the forces came in scores.
Weapons forged from hearts impure.
Lies woven, nothing but discord.
They battered me, and broke my shield.
All I…
Dating while trans is never easy. However, with the updates dating apps are pushing out to be more inclusive of trans and nonbinary identities transphobia still lurks with every swipe and notification. As I have sought a connection in lockdown here are some things I have noticed that dating apps get wrong, and that can amplify distress and dysphoria. …
Whatever the Street
You and I would be bound to meet
If not Henry
Perhaps Patrick Street
Not in Olin,
Maybe not in Ashlan’
A past life
taking dance in Elon
Just a stolen glance
Grabbin coffee
outside Walker Dance
Not in Carolina
How about Louisiana?
As I sip an Au Lait
I catch your eye across the way
The vampires sent me
Would you believe me?
Even as you walked away
I know your heart will find it’s way
back to me
Once again in Jackson Square
Sipping whiskey with a beignet
Your dog jumps excitedly
Seeing me she…
It happened so unexpectedly. She came speeding through and it spun me around, and stole my breath, my heart stopped beating for a second.
She didn’t expect it, and you could see the shattered pieces everywhere.
Onlookers simply passed by, this is just another day, and another wreck. No one need be involved for her.
She made it home in measured steps, sitting in the pain she sought out care.
She held herself together a bit more, and went into the shop.
They told her it didn’t look good, why hadn’t someone told her before she made it in. You…
13 years ago I walked into a coffee shop on the campus of Randolph-Macon and my life changed. Classes had finished it was a crisp fall day. It was the kind of chill that brought your senses alive and the breeze carried the lingering scents of summer in the faintest of ways. I was going to the coffee shop with my friend Kris, he was continually poking fun at me for staying up all night with a girl for weeks on end just to talk. He said I probably didn’t have any game, and she was just looking to be…
Growing Up in a Southern Baptist Culture of Hate, Sexual Abuse, and Conversion Therapy
I grew up in church. A lot of us, even in the LGBTQ+ community, grew up in church. But I feel like that is a gross oversimplification of what being part of the church was to my family at the time. We were at church Sunday morning, Sunday evening, Monday night, Wednesday night, and for a good chunk of the year during Upward basketball season Saturday too. Four out of seven days of the week I was in church. It didn’t matter, if the church had something going on our family would be there. From worship services, to potlucks, to…
How the US Government still tries to deny Passports to Transgender People
Since February I had been waiting to get my passport issued and returned to me. With the onset of the pandemic and the government shut down, as much as Trump said there was no shut down, it took until last week for my passport to be issued. Across the entire process the United States government still enforces “rules” on passports for transgender people that are not included anywhere on their website, or in the law. …
Or Meet My Resistance
It’s Pride Month, and so far we have seen an out of touch woman deride trans women for calling her out on her hatred and vow war, and we have another bigoted and despicable legal action taken by the United States government. We are familiar with the phrases at Pride like “Respect My Existence or Meet My Resistance” but what have we done with that chant? In the last four years we have not taken to the streets, we have not been civilly disobedient, and we have yelled into our echo chamber.
I get that we have done much of…
Shana Carroll
My journey as a transwoman navigating life in the Bible Belt, living as witch, and fighting the cistem.
