He Doesn’t Mind, But I Do

Winter Coat Donate Pittsburgh

A pressure point translates in Japanese to “tender spot.” What are your pressure points? Tell us about the experience of being outside, looking in — however you’d like to interpret that. The interesting thing about pressure points is that you have to apply the right amount of pressure and in just the right direction to trigger […]

FURTHER UPDATED: Beaver County LGBTQ Activist Has a Dying Wish

Cathy Cairns

UPDATE: Please note that the goal was increased due to the realization that a burial plot was not paid off as they originally thought. Many of you know Cathy Cairns. She has been a familiar face at many LGBTQ community events as well as an active participant in housing development projects. I am very sad […]

Do More Of These Things in 2014

Dog Coat

The Prompt: What Do You Want To Do More of in 2014? This is a companion post to yesterday’s prompt. First, I want to walk more and use more public transportation. The T stop is less than a mile from my front door so there’s no real reason I shouldn’t be using it to go Downtown. […]

Unemployment Benefits Cut in Pennsylvania; Where LGBTQ Unemployed Can Turn

gay unemployment

73,000 Pennsylvanians stopped receiving emergency unemployment compensation yesterday due to the expiration of a federal extension launched under the Bush Administration. 73,000 of our neighbors without a job and with no income in a still terrible economy where Fight Club determines which person gets the PT barista job. I don’t really have a lot that’s […]

Guilt, PTSD and a Dog Named Jack

Daily Prompt: The Guilt that Haunts Me  Share a time when you were overcome with guilt. What were the circumstances? How did you overcome your guilt? What an interesting prompt that happens to fall on Christmas Eve when the ghosts of Christmases past, present and future haunt Ebeneezer Scrooge. I’ve been really enamored of A […]

Kindness Is Not Always Random

homeless Pittsburgh

The Prompt: Tell us about the time when you performed a secret random act of kindness — where the recipient of your kindness never found out about your good deed. How did the deed go down? This is a tough one for me. I’ve certainly participated in many  projects anonymously, mostly behind the scenes as a […]

Saturday Memory: Christmas on Walton’s Mountain

Like most folks in their 40’s and above, I grew up watching wholesome television like “Walton’s Mountain” – a CBS family drama that aired from 1972 to 1981. I probably only watched the final 3 or 4 seasons and caught the remainder in reruns. I was fascinated by the time period – it was like […]

Simon Rescued Himself

Rescued Cat

The Prompt: Tell us about the time you rescued someone else (person or animal) from a dangerous situation. What happened? How did you prevail? I can’t really share stories about clients, but I do want to give a shout out to the front line workers – least paid and most abused – who put themselves on […]

Humility

Humility CS Lewis

The Prompt: C.S. Lewis said, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.” How good are you of placing others before yourself? I don’t think C.S. Lewis would want us to consider ourselves “good” at this – I suspect that defeats the purpose because we are fighting with our own nature […]

Watch “Gloomy Sunday – Billie Holiday” on YouTube

I’ve never been a fan of Sunday – it seems most of the world is caught in obligations to attend church, prepare food and go back to work on Monday. I have appreciated Sunday evenings b/c I rarely had to work during that time and it seemed like a good opportunity to simply rest – […]