I now live with Patti, and we have a yard. Texas grass is quite different than Iowa grass. St. Augustine must be royally pissed because this low-lying, tendril-oriented grass (weed) is named after him. "Why not a flower?" he must wonder...  Anyway, it's stiff and tough. So after some research, I bought a different kind of mower.  It's made by Fiskars. It's a push mower, with no gas or oil. And even on St. Augustine's coarse lawn scruff, it does a great job. It's even fun to use. For $200, it's money well-spent. Between that and my bike, I am oh so environmentally friendly. Today has been a good client day, aka income-preservation day. A client who uses 247Toolset gave some incredible feedback on volunteer shift management, which I will incorporate this weekend. And another client saw a proof of concept in the way that data is stored and displayed that will speed up everything to their expectations. Last year sucked for income. This year is much better. One foot in front of the other... You know, I could have just opted for a 9-5 job with fixed income. I tried insurance, which was kind of a mixture of DIY and regular job, but I do what I do because it's what I do best, and now a whole bunch of opportunities avail themselves. I believe in myself. I know what I can do. Luckily, I'm with a woman who deeply believes in me as well, and because I have her full-throated and full-bodied support, it's helping me to excel at what I do. Patti told me that she would rather live out of a back seat with me in pursuit of my dreams than live in a mansion with me miserable in a regular job. Thankfully, she'll never have to test the former scenario, but she is firmly latched onto me, for better or worse. She would never want her comfort at the expense of my happiness. I love her for that. The whole premise of Seeing is that you see a person for exactly who they are and you accept them for exactly who they are - otherwise, it's critical to see that the relationship is not a fit. If it is truly a fit, you respect who they are by not wanting to change them or make them into something they aren't. She doesn't want to change me. Not one iota. I hum while I work and dance goofy and order strange things, like the mower. And she sends me texts like these:  I am valued for who I am. Amazing... When I was looking into a mower, I showed her the Fiskars and asked her thoughts. "Are you sure it will handle the grass?"
"I read a testimonial that says it will. If it doesn't, we can return it."
She smiled warmly and confidently, and said, "Go for it, babe." And that was it. The mower came, I tried it, it worked, and she told me later that despite her doubts that a manual push mower would work, it did, and she was glad that it did. That's easy. No fighting, no argument. We hear each other and allow each other space to be ourselves fully, and even that is without effort. I looked at her last week and told her that for the first time in my life, I feel like I could trade places with a woman and the treatment and sentiments we share wouldn't change. I can be me. She can be her. We love equally. It makes me crave her all the mower :) | 
