Songs In The Key Of Life
Note: While this is a G-Rated Newsletter, it does talk about sex, sexuality, kink, and non-monogamy in an educational context. Consider yourself warned.
If you appreciate my work to create accessible sexuality and relationship education, now is a great time to donate! Your donations help me provide sliding scale coaching to other members of the community and help me keep my workshops affordable!
Stevie Wonder’s Songs In The Key Of Life is one of my favourite albums. One of the things I love about this album is that at different times I have different favourite songs on the album. There’s not a bad song on the album, and collectively it feels really tied together, while at the same time being made up of some very different songs that tell very different stories about life and the human experience. Currently on repeat is “Knocks Me Off My Feet”
To me, the core of that song is that sometimes just the act of being loved is extraordinary and life-changing. There’s a joy in connection, in being loved unconditionally and wholeheartedly, that rivals any other experience.
What are the ways we can love ourselves wholeheartedly? Can we only love others this way or is this something we can also show to ourselves? Can we knock ourselves off our own feet with love, with compassion, with understanding, with kindness? Can we ask ourselves what the kindest thing is we can do for ourselves? How do we love ourselves more deeply? Can we have unconditional love for ourselves?
These are the questions I find I am asking myself lately, especially as I have recently realized that I am a non-binary, transgender human. Apparently, the most sincere way I can show up and love myself right now is to acknowledge that truth, that I’m a non-binary person. This is a hard thing to do in the current environment, but not as hard as it would be to deny this truth.
If you follow me on social media at all, you might already know I’ve started using they/them pronouns. But it this is news to you, thanks for reading this and sharing in my joy. Despite the world being a harsh place for trans and queer folks, being trans is a great gift. It’s a joy to be me, and I love the chance to explore this identity further and share that journey with all of you who attend my workshops, work with me as a coach, or spend time in community with me.
In these challenging times, may you be well and may joy find you.
If you need to get in touch for any reason, please drop me an email darren@learngrowrepeat.ca.
Upcoming Fall Events!
Lots of educational and community opportunities coming up in the next while!
Announcing a New Online Queer, Neurodivergent Community Space!
I’m thrilled to announce that I am partnering with Blue Sky Learning to create Rainbow Skies, a free monthly online space for 2SLGBTQIA+ identifying folks and neurodivergent community members to provide a safe space for neuroqueer discussion, reflection and collective care. Kim and I are so excited to be sharing space with folks to create connection and community around these important identities!
We’ll be meeting on the third Thursday of every month, beginning September 21st! Register here if you would like to attend!
Workshops for Everyone
Coming up September 12th, I’ll be running my workshop Collaborative Consent: Pursuing Pleasure While Reducing Risk. This has always been a very popular workshop and a great opportunity to learn about building a more nuanced understanding of consent. As with all our workshops, we have different sliding scale options to support a wide variety of financial circumstances!
October 5th I will be running a free workshop online, New To Non-Monogamy. This is a great introduction to exploring non-monogamy, with lots of time for questions and comments from participants. And for a small cost you can get access to the recording after the fact. Non-monogamy can be really intimidating and I’d love to support you and your partners, friends, or family in understanding this relationship approach and how to explore all the available options! If you’ve got friends in your life that are newer to exploration, please put this workshop on their radar!
Workshops for Kinksters
For the kinksters, we’ve got a couple of additional online workshops coming up this Fall!
I’ll be teaching my Providing & Receiving Personal Service workshop on September 25. This is one of my most-requested workshops and provides practical advice on how to create and maintain kink connections that include an element of service. Emphasizing customization to meet your specific needs, this workshop has great questions to ask yourself and your partner(s) to make sure you’re on the same page about exploring service-based relationships.
In late October, we’ll have 2 additional kink-related workshops! On October 23rd, we’ll be talking about the myths and realities of adding discipline, rewards, and punishment to Dominant/submissive relationships in my Reward & Punishment in D/s Dynamics workshop. And on the 26th I’ll be providing bottoms and their partners tools and tricks to communicate more effectively in and out of the scene in my workshop Powerful Bottoming: Communication For Kick-Ass Bottoms.
Support & Connection
If you would like to connect with me for coaching please do. Sliding scale is available and I am happy to have a free consultation prior to beginning our work together.
As always, I appreciate your donations toward my educational & community work.
I recently joined Blue Sky, feel free to follow me there!