By the Time You Read This...

I'll be facing an influential transphobe dead on.

You may have noticed that I do not blog at the rate I once did since the Tr*mp inauguration (re-inauguration?). That's because most of the creative inspiration, minus some fiction efforts offline, is stunted much like other forms of joy. I can't blog that much, I can barely get it up, but somehow sugary chocolate snacks are imperative just as I was finally starting to eat healthier.

Tomorrow, I am going to City Hall to attend a meeting and comment against one of those "Protecting Girls and Women in Sports" legal initiatives meant to validate transphobia. I never thought I'd be a guy who cleaned while anxious, but here I am. Most likely, it will be deadlocked in its vote, but I am so new to local politics that I have no idea what the next step would be for it afterward.

I don't recommend dealing with oppression the way I have, which is pummeling myself day after day into doing something. When not in class, I've made merry calling my federal representatives and spelling out for them what they should already know, forming a housing collective with the eventual aim of getting my city to create LGTBQ-specific shelter, attending city council meetings to badger them into being more accessible, and reading nightmare after nightmare headline on Bluesky.

With that last one, I probably don't have to tell you that enduring the horror takes so much emotional energy as is. Usually, there's at least one person around a lunation who articulates exactly what I am thinking around that time. With this upcoming full moon in Leo in the decan called The Banner, it's that we are sick of social media's poison and want to be out in the real world doing something.

So I am and now of course I'm going to freak out about it all night.

I know this is not sustainable. I can't do something every minute of every day. I can't keep going, going, going like the primal part of my brain that is the same as an antelope thinks systemic oppression is a cheetah I can outrun. But I also can't rest very well. And I certainly can't create if I'm this stressed.

Recently, I was re-introduced to breathwork. And I'm thinking I'll have to get myself back to square one, where I just breathe. Starting now.

And in my chair in city hall in front of people who would love to see me gone for their own money and status. Breathe in one, two, three, four. Hold one, two, three, four. Release...