All shapes and sizes

I met an old friend outside a metro station yesterday and we walked on Mont Royal avenue which will now be pedestrian only until the fall. We found a café I have been to before with a terrasse in front and we spent quite some time catching up. 

I'm used to seeing transgender and gender variant people of all stripes living openly and so is he in his neighborhood and he admitted that he is used to me now. I said that I don't hinge my happiness on people's acceptance but I appreciate that he recognizes I am exactly the same person. He did joke however that if I were to glam it up drag queen style, it would be a different story. 

The most important thing I've learned is to be comfortable in your skin as who you are and it continues to reap dividends. The more relaxed you are, the more people pick up and feed off that energy. As a result strangers are more likely to want to approach me like the French couple from Marseilles who asked me for directions as I waited for my friend and were so happy to chat before moving on. 

There are still people who I have met over the years who don't know there wasn't always a life as Joanna and some may never know. I don't worry about it because doing so would risk perturbing the synergy we currently have. But if they were to ask me point blank I would simply admit it.

People of the world come in all shapes and sizes and the vast majority don't spend any significant time thinking about their gender which is the way it should be. Once that mindset begins to take hold, everything flows much better as you relax into the self.