This is beautiful. The line about “a particular kind of freedom that comes from no longer needing to hide” dropped straight into my marrow.

As a white male baby boomer, I’ve benefited from systems that often made it easier for me to move through the world. But that doesn’t mean I learned how to be fully seen—or how to fully let love in. Life is more complicated than our categories.

These days, I’m learning and practicing how to love myself, how to show up more fully as who I am, and how to let the love of others actually reach me. Heart first. Love first. Not allowing fear to become a hiding place.

And I hope, someday, to help create the kind of love you and Chelle seem to have created together—a love where two people can be fully seen, keep becoming more fully themselves, and still keep choosing each other.

Your piece reminded me that freedom isn’t only about what the world allows us to be. Sometimes it’s the freedom of finally no longer hiding—from one another, or from ourselves.

Thank you for this, Sharon ♥️