MonthNotes — May 2022
Insight, inspiration and lessons learned
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What’s been good about May?
May has been a glorious mix of fun, exercise, travel and writing, kicking off with a triathlon on the first weekend with my best mate, Rachel.
Writing on Medium has also been an obsessive, addictive pastime that has taken a large part of my focus. Falling down this rabbit hole has felt amazing, though. It’s been years since I’ve been in a state of ‘flow’ unless I’m running or cycling, so the experience is akin to coming home.
Staying with the flow has enabled me to really pick up the writing pace: this will be my 25th article published in Medium in May, an achievement I would not have thought possible at the start of April.
Who inspired you?
The person who has moved me the most this month is Devon Price.
I’ve been reading his articles on Medium for years and worried about him for about as long. He has written viscerally about depression, abuse and the challenges posed by transitioning and taught me a great deal about all these things through his intelligent prose.
What was a new discovery this month was that he has been diagnosed as autistic and has written a book about Unmasking Autism. After buying the book and watching him be interviewed I am struck by two things: that he appears very comfortable in his own trans-effeminate skin and that, suddenly, all his earlier writing falls into place. The constellation of experiences and feelings he’s shared on Medium come together in a pattern as clear as The Big Dipper: being trans AND autistic makes for a coherent lens.
What did you learn?
I’ve gone down a rabbit hole of research around neurodivergence, thanks in large part to the community of writers exploring the topic on Medium. People like Jillian Enright and Autistic Widower are helping me put my own differences into perspective. Thanks to people like them I have…
