Most people read the book BEFORE watching the movie, not this time for me.  True to form, I watched The Help and had no intention of reading the book.  But, thanks to a mantle that was thrown down before me, I borrowed a copy of The Help and went to it... 520 pages later my head is spinning.

After reading this book, I want to write my story.  I always knew I wanted to be an author, but I never knew what would truly resonate with me or with a reader. For years I hid who I was from the world, lost friends, conducted shallow relationships.  However, people would say I was relatively transparent.  I guess I was, but I had to be pretty open with most everything in my life because of the deep reality I was keeping a secret.

No one could know I was in a relationship with a woman.  How could I be?  Raised in a Christian household, active church participant, dated men before... not me - people had placed philosophical bets against it.  But all these years later... here I am, standing in the sunny truth of it all.

Reading through the stories in this book caused deep sadness for the segregation that our country has suffered through and is still living in the shadow of today.  As I was reading about the sad, dividing Jim Crow laws that kept the "separate but equal" lifestyle in check, I couldn't help but think about myself.

Is there a potential that today's government could draft, on the local, state or federal level, statutes that discriminate against me?  Maybe it's already begun. Are we tearing down walls at this point or building them up?

I am gaining confidence daily, like the women in the story, to open my mouth, lay down my fear, and share my truth.  I have only been openly myself for about a year and a half, so I am still in the shallow end.  But as I see injustice, discrimination, hate, and prejudice towards people like me, the reality starts to personally hit home.

I may not become an overnight sensation as an author, but maybe this blog can become an additional source of truth for me and spur others on to becoming a complete, honest version of themselves.