One Year Anniversary!

It has been one year since I left NC and moved to my new/old home state of OR.  I was actually born in Brooklyn, NY and raised from ages 4-12 in Maplewood, NJ, but teenage years were in Portland and Beaverton.

After 25 years in Chapel Hill, it is good to be back in OR.  Though I miss friends and family, the land, the culture, of NC, I do not miss the politics and the sense of "stickiness" in my life. I felt stuck and unable to grow any further.  My sense of well-being was not advancing but slowing down mightily.

Oregon has been a place where I have thrived because of family, friends, the work I do, the people I work with, and the surrounding culture, both land and the arts.

Thankful, I am, for the good people of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church.  While I am still the only out gay Presbyterian pastor in the state of OR, it is not so lonely here with great people, and a good group of gay men I hang out with from time to time.

Living a life of gratitude.

Pax!

B

Family Tree Happiness! A Cousin (once removed/second) is Gay!

Silly feelings.

Caught up in a flood of feelings.

For the longest time, I thought I was the only gay person in my mom's or dad's family tree.  None of my cousins on my mom's side of the family tree-Ferguson-were out and gay.  They were either hiding or they are conservative and heterosexual for the most part.  On my dad's side of the family, he had no sisters and brothers, so that was that.

I just discovered today that my mom's brother's daughter's (my cousin's) son is gay.  Out and gay.  Fiercely so.

There are two (2) of us in this crazy tree.

It is biological, after all.

Neither of my kids are gay.

But a second cousin IS gay.

Of course, no one talked about it openly.  My second cousin was told by his mom, my first cousin, that I'm gay. She, my first cousin, has never talked to me about being gay.  Heck: none of my cousins or aunts or uncles on my mom's side of the family have talked to me about being gay or if I'm gay or happy being gay or...you get the point.

A second cousin is gay. And out.

Hallelujah!

Pax!

B