2/10/13

Say hello to your new resident blogger!


Well hello and welcome to the UDGLBT Center’s community blog! 


My name is Miranda and I’ll be using this space to share stories, articles and other findings of interest to the LGBT community. In addition, I'll be helping to manage our Facebook and Twitter pages as well. This is your blog too, so be sure to get involved and share your comments on any entries you find particularly exciting and if you’re interested in providing an article yourself or guest blogging, please use our contact info to e-mail us! 

For our very first entry, I thought it might be nice to let you know a little about myself. After all, we will be seeing a lot of each other, so you may as well know whose rants you’re reading. This is my story...but because I am by nature a “creative eccentric,” it is in narrative poem form. So, brew yourself some tea or shake yourself a cocktail and let’s get reading!

Magic

I’ve always believed in magic. The kind of magic that allowed a little Spanish woman from Honduras, my grandmother, to divorce her ogre of a husband and single-handedly raise two daughters on a seamstress’ income in the United States of the 1970’s, despite only knowing limited conversational English.

I believe in the magic of making something from nothing, just as my grandmother did when she stretched each dollar to ensure that her two princesses were always well-educated, impeccably groomed and treated to those mainstays of American culture…ice cream, movie outings and hamburgers, every once in awhile.

I believe in the magic of supplication. Of asking for help and summoning assistance…be it from God…or one’s family…or one’s own inner reservoirs of untapped fortitude in order to endure the otherwise unendurable. I believe in the magic of family that supports one another in those times of great need, like my grand-uncle helped his sister those many years ago.

I believe in the magic of time travel, for when my grandmother tells me of those days, the past comes alive and through the windows of her eyes I can see every tear, every fear…every unyielding hope that brought her from there to here. I make that journey with her and know that magic exists.

I believe in the magic of filling a grandchild’s Paterson-poor holidays with a treasure trove of toys bought through scrimping, saving and layaway plans. In the magic of multicolored lights, popcorn tins, a glazed ham in the oven and the symphonic strains of friends and family swirling throughout the living room of a tiny third story apartment, stretching it beyond its limits and, for that day, transforming it into the grandest of palaces.

I believe in the magic of inheritance. For that same woman’s magical strength of will has been passed down from mother to daughter to me. I believe in the magic of the undying dream, which resulted in a much sought-after home for my mother and a much sought-after son for my aunt. I believe in the magic of the seemingly impossible and the magic of transmutation, for I became what I ought to have been through the same magic that’s swelled through the veins of three generations of my family’s women.

I believe in the magic of recording this for posterity’s sake, so that this magic never disappears from the world. I believe in the magic of sharing and the way that sharing can make ideas flourish and spread like ivy…so I share this fable, born of magic but grounded in truth with any and all who will listen. I share this magic with you.

10 comments:

Denise Fey said...

Miranda, You write beautifully and I look forward to reading your blog often and with great interest!!!

Unknown said...

Miranda Thank you for sharing your magic...Your grandmothers spirit and undying love is deeply embedded in you. Happy to know you Lenore

UDGLBT said...

Thanks so much Denise! :)

UDGLBT said...

Lenore! Thank you for the wise words darling, so glad you enjoyed it! :)

Bill said...

I believe in magic too, Good Lady! +.

Anonymous said...

Every time I read what you share, I love you more and more!
Nancy

UDGLBT said...

Thanks Bill! Hope you have a magical day!

UDGLBT said...

Aw, thanks Nancy! Love ya too!

Anonymous said...

Miranda, well done! We are the passionate writers of how we feel and become. I love to have you with your blog on my wordpress page called Rainbow Connections 6746. This is great!

Heather Donahue said...

You write your words just as beautifully as you are! I had the pleasure of meeting you a few times and you definitely left an impression! Keep writing so we all can enjoy and be touched by your beautiful words! Heather Donahue