An update from Marlo: Here be dragons

Dear friends,

I wanted to check in with an update, as it’s been a fairly long stretch since you’ve heard anything from me. First and foremost: My kiddo is doing GREAT. So far, she’s told a handful of friends at her new school that she’s trans, and thus far they (and their parents, whom I spoke with) have been kind, supportive, and respectful of our request that they keep this information to themselves.

She was elected class representative by her fellow fifth-graders, is enjoying her piano lessons (she’s getting pretty good!), and, to her mother’s delight, seems to be growing up pretty slow. While traces of tweenhood are appearing (more eye rolls, more mood swings, and my jokes are progressively less funny), her favorite activities still revolve around the world of imagination. At this moment she is in the backyard with two of her best friends, befriending elves and fighting dragons.

Her mom is OK, too, but is struggling, coping with a family crisis that has brought me to my knees. I’m battling my own dragons: Life’s inevitable losses, the grief that follows, the fire-breathing fear that keeps us up at night, the facing of painful truths that cut you down before they set you free. I am deep in the woods of life. It is not an easy place to be, but it is the only place worth being. And I believe it’s the only place we grow.

For now, battling dragons needs to take precedence over producing podcasts. I don’t know when I’ll arrive at the next clearing and have the energy to tell more of our tales. It could be tomorrow, it could be in a month. I just don’t know.

I want to thank you for hanging in there with me, for your generous support, and for your beautiful emails sharing your stories with me. It is an honor to read them. If you don’t get a reply, please know that I’m sending my love and that I’m with you on this bumpy, beautiful quest, always.

Stay strong. Be kind to yourself. I’ll be back again when I can.

Big huge hugs,

Marlo