I have just finished a note for a friend of mine who has given me a tremendous gift.  I received the gift in September but I have only now been able to respond with words.  What was given to me in September was a bracelet w/ a metal inscription reading: 

listen to your soul

Listening has been something that I’ve been trying to do, since that fateful Sunday meeting in 2006.  Attempting to find the voice of my soul meant that I locate my soul for it was certainly displaced.  I believe I have located my soul and the voice of my soul is slowly emerging.  Though we are in the midst of Advent, I’m not yet brimming with hope.  I’m hoping that this tremendous gift becomes a means of re-orienting myself:  my soul and all. 

The bracelet has been for me a means to find myself and relocate my identity.  Its that feminist call to embody all things good while seeking to stand fast against marginalization and displacement of identities.  Perhaps the gift giving was the most powerful feminist and queer offering that I’ve ever experienced.  Feminist for its liberating horizon that this bracelet provies for me and queer for the way the gift has become a sort of liberating and eucharistic symbol.

Thank you Laura, though Thanks just doesn’t seem like enough…

Now, we’re heading to the Steppenwolf tonight with our good friends and I’m so very excited!