"I am nonbinary and I feel that my gender dysphoria may be part of why I am sex-averse. I feel that there is a pro in that being asexual means that I am not distressed by any sex-aversion I experience due to my gender dysphoria." — Em Z., via Sarah Costello and Kayla Kaszyca Sounds Fake but Okay
"A lot of my ace identity is inherently a part of my trans identity. Being sex-indifferent or sex-repulsed is fueled by my lack of sexual attraction and my disconnection from my body. One example is that my aversion to wearing a bikini stems from not wanting people to be sexually attracted to me, but also that it accentuates the parts of my body that I am most uncomfortable with and what I see as counter to how I view myself." — Kara T., via Sarah Costello and Kayla Kaszyca Sounds Fake but Okay
"I am nonbinary/genderqueer and I feel like my gender is very tied with my ace identity. I think it took me such a long time to figure out my gender because I'm ace. I thought that I was uncomfortable looking like a girl because of how sexualized AFAB bodies are by general society." — Mattea, via Sarah Costello and Kayla Kaszyca Sounds Fake but Okay
"As breasts are heavily sexualized in every form of media, I was never comfortable with my own. Even crossing my arms didn't feel right because I preferred to simply forget that they existed." — Finch, via Sarah Costello and Kayla Kaszyca Sounds Fake but Okay
"I saw a river of clouds drifting through the canyon below us, swallowing the ground and remaking it into a moving mass of shadows, curves, and drifts that was the most spectacular portrayal of beauty my eyes have had the pleasure of taking in. I started crying in disbelief. Then crying in belief. How often is it that we have the opportunity to pause and take in the moments of beauty that surround us? I had not experienced something that forced me to see my own grandeur and the beauty of it all, or to reckon with the work that I've put into arriving here. I found myself in the center of all of that, celebrating this arrival as I felt my humanity swimming through my body as I swam my way up the chimney... A pause to let yourself listen to and sing with the birds, to witness the magnificence of your surroundings, and yourself within them; a pause to allow yourself to be in awe." — Heather Smallpage "The Fluidity of Grief and Beauty", AAC Guidebook, issue XVI
"Feeling insignificant because of landscapes that humble us is familiar to me, welcomed even. I much prefer the way the land makes me feel small, compared to the way humans have that same ability." — Heather Smallpage "The Fluidity of Grief and Beauty", AAC Guidebook, issue XVI
"I really try to see [each spot I visit] with new eyes, because I don't want to become complacent just because I've lived here for so long. I want to see everything new all the time. [I want] to be always open and aware of my environment and the new things that it's telling me, or the old things that it's reminding me of." — Alexandra de Steiguer HumaNature Podcast Episode 124: The Woman of Star Island
"Fear lives in a past experience or in a future assumption of what might happen." — Kimmy Fasani Outside Podcast: What Snowboarding Has to do With Parenthood, Loss, and Cancer
"[Doubt is part of my process.] We’re conditioned to see doubt as a sign of insecurity and weakness. I wanted to be one of those people who roll through challenges without a second thought. But doubt is natural, and when we learn to stop resisting it, it becomes a potent source of strength. It doesn’t hinder our creativity. It fuels it. Doubt means we’re asking questions, which means we’re alive and awake, paying attention, willing to do things without a guaranteed outcome, to stretch beyond our edge, and grow in unknown ways." — Katie Arnold What the HELL Was I Thinking?, Work in Process
"[C]ontent will not make us content. (Talking about how there's too much meaningless content online, and the ever-present urge to consume it all won't make us content, aka happy. I need to work on this one!)" — Katie Arnold Content, Work in Process
"Resilience doesn't come from comfort. And so I'm not wishing you a life free of discomfort. I'm wishing you a life where you can handle the discomforts that are inevitably going to come. And I think about that's what my journey in the mountains so much has taught me is not how to prevent all of the things that don't feel good, but how to lean into the ones that are there to teach us." — Melissa Arnot Reid Outside Podcast, "Climbing Everest is Easy Compared to Surviving an Abusive Parent"
"We experience all sorts of “lasts” without necessarily recognizing it in the moment. We forget, swept up in the next chapter of our lives. And while some things are meant to be fleeting, others we aren’t so quick to let go of. And that is how you know what’s really important to you." — Jen Gurecki Prison, birthing children, and cancer, Redefining Radical
"If we stay in the story too long, it becomes a cage." — Cory Richards The Color of Everything: A Journey to Quiet the Chaos Within
"I have to believe in complete healing. I have to surround myself with people who believe it, too. I have to see it and feel it and live it. I have to train my mind to heal my body...This is how it works: my mind transporting me back to a time when I was healthy, and, at the same time, ahead to when I will be again...I dream about walking. The setting and characters change, but the plot is always the same: I’m injured and on crutches and then, without thinking, I take one free step and then another...I no longer refer to my left leg as my broken leg: it’s my healing leg...Recovery isn’t something that will happen. It is happening...Healing isn’t a mysterious, passive process that’s happening to me, but one that I am creating." — Katie Arnold Brief Flashings in the Phenomenal World
"Sitting taught me how to pay attention without creating stories around what I saw...Everything is Zen when you see it clearly for what it is, rather than what you want it to be." — Katie Arnold Brief Flashings in the Phenomenal World
"Imagining a feeling of happiness, especially during meditation, starts to shape our lives toward it despite no external factors changing at all." — Cory Richards The Color of Everything: A Journey to Quiet the Chaos Within
"It’s strange how we miss things the most just as they’re about to end." — Katie Arnold Brief Flashings in the Phenomenal World
"I am and always will be the optimist. The hoper of far-flung hopes and the dreamer of improbable dreams." — 11th Doctor Doctor Who, "The Almost People"
"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Airman's Odyssey
"There is little room for others when we’re consumed by ourselves." — Cory Richards The Color of Everything: A Journey to Quiet the Chaos Within
