Coat of Arms

Everyone needs a coat of arms. Well, maybe not everyone. Okay, I do. Here then is my coat of arms, the symbol and words of my Human Family Values, in neon (of course):

Gratitude

I am grateful to many for their presence and support this past year. WARNING: the following will read like an acceptance speech at the Academy Awards. But I there is no other way but to name names and even that is paltry next to the great gifts given by the beings with such names. I am The Winner and I wish to thank...

Pema Chodron, you are numero uno Bodhisattva. Thich Nhat Hahn, you are my Thay, my gentle and masterful teacher. Susan Miller, Helen Schweitzer, Rickie White, La Sarmiento, Wendy Taylor, Fiona Grant, Heidi Mordhorst, Paul English, Sanborn Hodgkins, Glo Cantwell (aka "Mom!"), Sara Ashenburg, Carol Grunberg, Kate Cutlip, John Andrews, Susanne Bingham, Diana Deitrich, Don Wells, Lucy Langenkamp, David Smith and Eric Salmon, you have all defined "friend," played a crucial role in my healing and moved me beyond mere "healing." Carol Klem and the women of "Starting Over" at Whitman Walker's Lesbian Services Program, you have validated and supported at every every turn. Corky, the ultimate Wonderdog, no words can touch my gratitude for your steadfast companionship these past 10 years of our lives.

I can't say how many times my heart has filled with tears this past year, and each time I wrung it out it just seemed to fill up again. Somewhere along the way, it stopped filling up. Every so often gentle rains still come, and a garden grows there now. I have found this Being, life itself, to be a great friend.

i am no one
if any one, myself
never some one else
unless every one.

Wonderdog

Corky Joybringer Barker