One of the most vibrant and creative people I have met in the last year. Khahtee V. Turner, founder of Studio Creative Play, a pre-school in Brooklyn

Jeff and I had brunch with Khahtee and her son Ansel recently, and we reminded of her great, loving energy. Check out this article on her distinct approach to pre-schools.

The church official who blocked the trial of a priest who molested hundreds of deaf boys is now the Pope. Another scandal for the Catholic Church

Beyond outrageous, especially for an organization that supposedly is "pro-life" and "pro-family." I am appalled and saddened. Read this.

The power of putting yourself out there

About two months ago I started this blog and a related twitter account as a means of letting lesbian women, with similar goals and aspirations, know about me. I had some fears about writing a blog but had an even stronger desire to meet a potential mom who was looking a known sperm donor and become a mentor to a child. If you read my blog posts over this time, you may have picked up on the vulnerability I have sometimes felt in sharing my feelings here, talking about my personal life, and showing pictures of family, friends and myself on the worldwide wide web. Yet as Pema Chodron, a favorite Tibetan Buddhist teacher, encourages, I felt no choice but to “lean into” my discomfort, blogging and tweeting in the hopes of meeting potential moms with common interests and intentions. Nearly every day, I have spent an hour or more doing this, including writing blog posts, putting messages on related web sites, sending personal emails to health and legal professionals who work with lesbian families, linking with other LGBT parenting blog sites, and brainstorming ideas with everyone I can.

Having invested this energy and time, recently, things for me are starting to move and take more form. A few women are beginning to email me, I am having preliminary conversations, and others are suggesting new avenues and resources to pursue. In the process, I feel like I am having some affect on realizing my dream, not just being at effect. It is also feels good to share heart-felt aspirations and stories with others who are on similar journeys, encouraging and helping to support one another. This process has become its own reward and that's not something I expected two months ago.

I am on a plane to Kauai, Hawaii now (yes, poor me!) for a week on this famous garden island, with fun, gay married friends, a couple that got married when it was legal in California. In addition to playing sports on the beach and reading, I plan to keep blogging, answering emails and tweeting, watching Obama’s speech to the gays (tonight, at the HRC dinner on C-SPAN) and cheering the Herculean effort to create a better health care system for all Americans. Putting myself out here has required vulnerability, creativity and persistence in showing up -- the qualities expected in any spiritual warrior. And so far, this experience has been well worth it.

Aloha!

Health care reform is threatened by forces of greed, selfishness, and fear. It is time to wake up!!!

Please indulge my moment of moral outrage -- What sort of country do we live in when millions, including children, go without regular health care? How can people call themselves "Christians" when they actively rally against universal health care? How can we live in fear of contracting a chronic illness that can bankrupt us? How can spend the highest-per-capita on health care in the world and have some of the lowest outcomes? Why do we trust insurance companies and bureaucrats (who are amoral, private profiteers) but are afraid of government regulators? Why do reward the number of procedures a doctor provides versus the wellness of the patient? How can you play politics with people's lives and health, and sleep well at night? Are we that stupid to put our health in the hands of uncaring corporations?

Our country needs to look deeply at itself and reexamine its values and do what is right, creating an effective and efficient medical system for all its citizens -- not just for its elite, especially the Republican Congressmen who refuse to give the rest of the country the same medical benefits they enjoy at our expense. Where is their MORAL RESPONSIBILITY? THEIR CONSCIENCES? And THEIR SENSE OF COMPASSION? This is the party of corporate interests and the plutocracy, not Abraham Lincoln! He would be absolutely appalled by their short-sightedness, selfishness and greed (and would summarily quit the GOP). And so am I.