“It is not a sin to be a woman – The person whom God created.”
Jennifer Nicole Taylor
Jenny – Happy and Free
The “Flow”, that place where happiness, success and joy are found
You know one thing I have discovered over and over…
When you do what your heart desires and what you like – what feels good to your soul, your gut instinct, things gravitate to you. There is less work trying to make things happen. You get less frustrated as you see that you work in concert with the universe and not against it.
I used to think that I had to work hard and make things conform to my wishes. I would do this and that to manipulate the outcomes. Most times, doing it that way, I found that the joy was short-lived. The work was far too hard and often, I just gave up. I did not understand about living within the flow of the universe.
What is the “Flow”
There is a natural current that flows all around us in life. It’s what makes the conscience “feel right”. The flow is what makes our soul and gut instincts “feel right”. The flow is where you are in your groove and it is headed downstream. There is no fighting against something or struggling to make ends meat. There is no competition against everyone and a selfish place where you alone are “number one”.
The flow is where there is a concert amongst people and events in the world. A direction and universality, where you dance with and for the benefit of others. A plan and a design where you find a place and it feels right to your soul. But better still, this flow is where you succeed and where you do your best. It is a natural and organic place for you and it is much easier.
How Do I Find The Flow
Finding the flow for some is tough because they do not have the tuner working. That inner direction, the radar of sorts that knows where to locate what is in the flow and what lies outside that flow. To build your awareness and your ability to locate this wonderful place of success and happiness, you start with loving yourself. You nurture that inner flame and prepare yourself for a new direction. As you love you and redirect your life in a positive direction, the flow will find you. You also will find it.
More to Come
In the next few weeks I will be talking about how to build the inner you and help you find what I have discovered. Many of you are searching for this so called flow, where life is happy and things are better. You are at the place where you must change your life. In time, you’ll understand what the flow is and how it is closer and more reachable than you ever imagined. Really, you already know what it is because God placed it deep inside each of us. It’s the things that love are made of. It’s what you feel when you see a beautiful flower or hold a newborn baby. The flow is what you see when you look at the colors of a rainbow or watch a sun set. It is friendship and it is joy.
I so want to share this discovery with anyone who has the ears to “see” it and the eyes to “hear” it.
Much Love – Jenny Taylor
jennifercohenhappy@gmail.com
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Be a Rose That Grows in The Desert – Look for Life and Find It
I am learning to celebrate life and all of its many facets…Even in a desert!
Life is a journey and living in extreme Southern California, and it has me on a majestic trip in which there appears to be barren and lifeless lands, but it really is not. So looking beyond what my eyes can see immediately in this desert place, I challenge my senses to search for beauty, life and color.
I guess you could also look at your own life and being transgender, or whatever place you live, as a journey you’ve been placed on: chosen and lifeless. Like a desert, with no noticeable life and growth you simply exist there. Yet, if you make a decided effort to explore the desert and look beyond the heat and the sand, you find beauty, richness and life in places that you’d never imagine.
When you think of a desert, you think of hot and barren – a place that offers death. But again, ignoring the obvious to see and find the obvious is what you want to do. Choosing to look for that which is opposed to death, looking for what fosters life and beauty. As with any challenge, if you do some exploration, you’ll see any desert is teaming with good and growth – but begin to look for it.
So here I am in the desert literally. I have accepted the challenge and the task of advancing myself in the physical as well as in the spiritual. I hope what I share inspires you to do the same, even in a place where there are no extreme temperatures or immense expanses of sand, you can search and you can find.
Much Love – Jenny Taylor
jennifercohenhappy@gmail.com
Flowers, even in a desert.
Compassion and Love For a Child with Autism
I was at my favorite tattoo shop finishing up my tattoo with some final colors and some shading. I was about to embark on my trip for California and I was under a time crunch to get it completed. I wanted my good friend Kelli to finish the great job that she had started many months ago. As I was sitting there in between sessions and giving Kelli and my hurting arm a break, a cute little red haired kid was sitting on one of the couches and playing a video game.
The child looked like any normal child would and he was so enthralled with his game. Well, all until I walked by. You see I am like any normal woman. I was pretty, well dressed for getting a tattoo anyway and I was enthralled with my Cellphone and Facebook. There we were the two of us alone in a tattoo shop and no one ever suspecting that he or I were different in any way.
The boy seeing me pass, all of a sudden, looked up and stopped his gaming! I, at the very same time, stopped my furious Facebooking too. His cute little face starred at me and his mind was churning with a question for me. Well, I continued to the back room thinking the child was not going to speak. But then as my back was to the little red headed curly-top, he blurted out this:
“Are you a boy or a girl?”
I stopped again and then turned to the boy to answer. At first I was a little peeved at the notion that the child would dare ask me such an intrusive question! Then I waited, took a deep breath, and looked at the kid. I noticed something about him that was different. I guess it was exactly the same as he had noticed something different about me. I too wanted to ask him what were his challenges in a little boy way. But then he beat me to the punch! I quickly answered as sweetly as I could:
“My dear, I am a girl.”
He then replied rather quickly as he did not think I was telling him the truth. Again, I was loving, calm and trying my best to get why this child was so inquisitive? As I looked at him in a split second to answer his innocent inquiry, I recognized the signs of autism. My heart filled with love and mercy more and I attempted to answer him as best as I could. But before I could say another word, he blurted out another question to me:
“You look like a boy and your voice is low too.”
OMG, now what would I say? The kid dinged me and rang my bell for sure. He was indeed right. I did look like a boy somewhat being transgender and I did in fact have a low voice. Yet in his innocence and with my huge heart, I said this:
“Well you know what? There are many girls with low voices. And let me assure you I am a woman. OK?”
The boy was satisfied with my reply and he said “OK”. All he wanted to know was my truth and when I gave it to him in a loving way, that was all the kid wanted. To be sure that my answer was sufficient, I asked him:
“Are we OK then?”
The boy looked up and said to me with total honesty:
“Yah, we are OK.”
I said one final word to him to tie it all up in a wonderful life lesson. Others heard the dialog between us and I think it inspired them as well. You see the child with autism was not like other children, he was unique in his own special way. I was not like other women he knew. I was also special in my own way. It was at that very moment that I discovered something. He and I were the same. We were human and we were both facing troubles, struggles and challenges in life. Here we both were together in this universe and our paths had crossed. We both were wonderful people inside. We both excelled beyond our issues and our mountains. We both accepted one another he with autism and I being transgender. It was a great moment. Oh yes, the final word:
“I guess we are both special then.”
He said to me in his innocent kid voice:
“Yes, we are”.
The boy went back to his all engrossing game, I to my Facebook and tattoo session. It was a moment I will never forget.
Much Love – Jennifer Nicole Taylor
jennifercohenhappy.com
Jenny Taylor 2014
When Fear Replaces Common Sense and Sensibility – LGBT Rights Defended
I have a Simple Question:
I am a woman, I then marry another woman – we are Lesbians and commit ourselves to a union and for life. We love each other, work hard and earn a living and support the community and pay taxes. We live life and pursue happiness and are open to all people and accept all people, religious or not.
How is a couple like this a threat to your right to free speech, freedom of religion and any other Constitutional rights? How are freedom loving people, a threat to straight marriage and your family?
If I may answer, I think, it’s because people are “creeped out” – feel uncomfortable when they think about gay people kissing and being in love. I think, it’s people who refuse to change their beliefs because of fears and change. I think, it’s even bigotry and discrimination at the core for some.
To somehow take the countries eyes, and even their own eyes, off of the discrimination and denial of rights and even bigotry, people use God and beliefs to manipulate their followers. To sanitize the hate into something Biblical and worthy of doing. To mask unloving and unjust treatments of other human beings, into what they call righteousness. It’s the same thing dictators do and have done throughout history. Using religion to justify ungodly behavior as right. Even killing is ok, when people think God is behind them. How can one say no to God?
A very sad state of affairs we are in when a country based upon freedom and liberty, is a place where the innocent are not free and the “different ones” are refused liberties that others have. I say that people stand and refuse this strange manipulation of the religious right. I say that people of God should take a stand and tell their leadership to “stop manipulating us to harm others”.
There is no threat or a “gay agenda” to fear. There is only a couple who has a desire to love one another. To live free and to let you do the same. If you wish to call that an “Apocalypse” or the “Devil”, I guess you have that right. But never assume that the manipulation of your people has the right to deny me my love for another person.
Jenny Taylor – LGBT Activist and Fellow Human Being
Jennifer Taylor
Transition and Identity are NOT Based Upon the Media’s Portrayal of Body Image
Just a thought:
When you begin your transition, make sure your concept of beauty and masculinity are accurate – not media defined. When we as transgender people use the media and photoshopped images as the standard for gender image and self and our identity, we set ourselves up for a fall. Digital images are not attainable in real life.
Transitional goals must be based on reality and truth – what a man or a woman really is and looks like and how they live. When media is the basis for our identity and self concept, we may be in danger of being one of the 41% who attempt or commit suicide each year. Transition must be based on attainable goals and outcomes for male and female or gender non-conformity.
Something to consider.
Jennifer Nicole Taylor
jennifercohenhappy@gmail.com
Transgender Activist – Jenny Taylor
Thanks to a Gay Man and a Little Song by a Straight Woman
Pondering and Recalling
As I sit here, I am recalling the day 16 months ago, when I began my hormone replacement therapy and 2 years ago, when I first came out of the closet. As I go through the channels of my mind, I will never forget two people who made it clear to me that I was gay and that it was time for me to transition to my true gender identity. These two people are not related and yet the Universe decided to make them both converge on my questioning life.
The first person was a gay guy. I was sitting at my desk at the office where I was working, his desk was across the hall from mine. I remember how I cried out to God. I was asking Him/Her, what the hell I was supposed to do with my life? I felt so empty and so incomplete. I swore to the Almighty and cursed my life before Him/Her. I demanded an answer and I believe God answered me. He gave me my life motto:
“Be real, be genuine, be true to yourself and be happy”
What amazing words from Heaven. So straight away, I made the choice to do just that! Right there at my desk. I decided that I was going to be real first with my being gay. I was gay, had always been gay and was not able to come out at any point in my younger life. But today was the day that I would be me – Gay. I would no longer hide that fact and deny myself happiness with a lie of being straight.
Me as Dave
A Gay Guy Named Hans
After my choice and decision to live my reality and be genuine with myself, I recalled Hans across the hall. I also recall how people made fun of him for being gay. How he hit on guys at work and was not shy at all about his orientation. I thought wow, a guy who was strong enough to be happy and genuine, to be true to himself and to be happy. I called Hans that night and I confessed to him my desire to be me and that I was in fact gay. He encouraged me and put any fears I had to rest. He was such an inspiration to me. He later asked me out on a date – I bravely said yes!
Well, at the time I was not to the point where I was the real gender identity that I also knew was true – I was transgender and a woman. I was also presenting as a man and I was also stuck in a relationship with a Jamaican girl. Oh man, was I in a jam. I was a hidden transgender woman, who was gay and in a straight relationship and on top of that, I was now going out with a gay guy! LOL But deep in my heart, I had to do what the incredible voice from God said to do. I had to be brave and take the bold move to be me.
A Woman and a Song Changed My Life
The next person that helped me was a woman named Samantha James. She wrote a song and I know she must have had me in her mind when she wrote it and sang it. The song name was “Amber Sky” and in that song are the most incredible words ever for any transgender woman. It said: “I just, just wanna be, the girl I used to be”. OMG what an incredible verse and I just stumbled upon it at the very same time that I was seeing Hans and facing my sexuality! I played her song a million times and it will forever be in my mind and spirit. It helped me see and face my additional reality that I was a female and not a male at all. I said so innocently what I was trying to say my whole life.
Convergence and Transformation
So take a gay man and a wonderful female vocalist and put them together in a gay-transgender woman’s life and presto, you have a wake up call to the max. It would not be long after these two events that I would share my orientation to my straight Jamaican girlfriend, I would end all straight relationships after that and I would then begin my transition from Dave to Jennifer. Two monumental moments and two people converged to make me brave enough to live a real and genuine life that could make me happy. The Heavens did have an answer to my frustration.
I had to make real changes after my breakup and I had to start to let go of past religious stigmas and prejudices. I had to love me for who I was and start to embrace more and more my reality as God made me. I changed my clothes to a more feminine androgynous look – a mix of male and female. I began to tell people about my new open life. I found great acceptance from those I worked with and with friends! Being gay in Florida was more than cool. But at the same time, people and even me, were not ready for my transition to female. I kept that on the down low. Yet, I got great peace and happiness by being gay Dave. I found new friends and I discovered a new world that I should have discovered long ago. A place where happiness was and completeness. I embraced my new life with fervor.
It would be many, many months before I could come out as a woman. But over time I also did that in January of 2013. Hormones would follow and Samantha’s song about being a girl and wanting to get back to her being a girl would propel me and inspire me. I guess being me – gay, and being me – female, was a perfect transition for me. Friends introduced me slowly to the gay community, which I soon loved, and then I could intrduce them slowly to the female transgender life. It all worked together like a well oiled machine. I was very happy and my life began to be more real, genuine and true to myself as the days went by. I would soon become happy – very happy.
Thank You!
So in closing to my short story, I’d like to memorialize a gay man and a song writing woman. Thanks you two, for living your lives and then walking in your talents. You impacted me in a very positive way. On my 16 month anniversary of being on HRT and coming out at 2 years, I have you to appreciate and I always will.
Much Love – Jennifer Nicole Taylor
Jenny Taylor 2014
LGBT Parents Have a Right To Share and Live Life with Their Kids
“It is more than appropriate to be LGBT or Q and to live life before children. Our lives are not inappropriate by virtue of our orientation. Children need to see LGBT parents and citizens live their normal and productive lives.”
By Jenny Taylor
LGBT Activist
May 2014
Swim with the Current and Not Against it
When you have major life changes, see them as opportunities and not disappointments.
It’s easy to get mad at the situation, but if you learn to see every disappointment as a motivator – a way the universe steers you, then you appreciate the let down. Why? because the let down motivated you to go away from one thing and then move on to another thing.
Life is a journey and a stream if you will. Sometimes we swim against the current. We end up opposing what is best for us and go in the wrong direction. Disappointment can get us going down stream and in the correct direction. Like a way the universe redirects us. Maybe we missed the warning signs or ignored the right way altogether. Disappointment and life changes wake us up and force us to go the right way.
So next time life throws you a curve ball and you have no idea why you got let down like this, think about it a whole new way. It might just be that there is a way better life ahead; swimming in the right direction in life; down stream and not opposing the current.
Much Love – Jenny
jennifercohenhappy@gmail.com
jennifercohenhappy.com 