Do you ever feel that being different is a curse?

To all of you out there who feel you are “different” or who are different (culturally, racially, personality-wise, in how you think or present yourself–in any way)–I want you to know the beauty in that difference.

Your “different” really IS your beauty.

Being different can be hard. I know this, myself. But how dull and grey life would be without the many differences that make up our world.

The unique things you bring to your world and to the greater world are so valuable!

Last month I noticed a woman I’d met had been absent from a monthly event for quite some time. I knew she was fighting some serious emotional and mental health issues and although I didn’t know her very well, I saw her struggle and her feeling of being different. I noticed she’d been gone. I worried about what had happened to her.

When she turned up at an event I made a point to go over and tell her that I was so glad to see her and that I’d missed her. Because I was and I had. Because her vulnerability was also mine, in that very human way, although I do not suffer her conditions.

Last night I was reading the feed of a transgender Facebook friend I just adore. They’re smart and articulate and sensitive and vulnerable. There are times when they wanted it all to end. Their life had been an emotional roller coaster this past year.

I’ve come to know them online and I realize that I know them because they are me–that part of me that is sensitive and vulnerable and different. And they are you, too, in that same way.

So as we approach the new year, I hope we can do it with love and appreciation for the many kinds of flowers in the bouquet of our lives. And that we can show them that being different is a blessing.

And that we help them bloom in whatever way we can.