{"id":112,"date":"2015-12-23T07:43:51","date_gmt":"2015-12-23T12:43:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/?p=112"},"modified":"2016-01-31T11:19:46","modified_gmt":"2016-01-31T16:19:46","slug":"honoring-your-voice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/?p=112","title":{"rendered":"Honoring your voice"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_2861\"<\/a><\/p>\n

July 2006.<\/p>\n

Dear Maya,<\/p>\n

Elated! Completely thrilled!\u00a0 High!\u00a0 These are some words to express your experience while you were in the Shapers Hair Salon <\/a>getting your hair cut for the first time.\u00a0 You were looking forward to the moment for a long time.\u00a0 You initiated the idea of having a haircut.\u00a0 What has been driving you has been the desire to look like a boy.\u00a0 I had some letting go to do, as I love your long hair.\u00a0 It\u2019s been quite beautiful.\u00a0 In fact, I have been resisting getting my hair cut short, as I thought you might want to follow suit and cut yours.\u00a0 But no.\u00a0 You surprised me and came up with the idea on your own.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_2771\"<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"IMG_2809\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

As Kelly was snipping your hair, your grin could not have not been bigger. You did not have one ambivalent bone in your body.\u00a0 Kelly suggested a bob, as that would be a good transition, but I felt the need to honor your request.\u00a0 Short is what you wanted and short is what you got.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_2811\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Not only did you love the process of getting it cut, but you love having short hair. You love running your fingers through it to \u201cbrush\u201d it.\u00a0 You like peeking at yourself in the mirror as you pass and you still hope people mistake you for a boy!<\/p>\n

As for me, I think you look great in short hair. We\u2019ll be donating your hair to \u201cLocks of Love\u201d, and organization that makes wigs for kids who\u2019ve lost their hair due to medical conditions.\u00a0 We\u2019ll also save a little for sentimental purposes.<\/p>\n

Locks <\/span>Lots of love, Mommy<\/p>\n

December 2015<\/p>\n

Maya, dear Maya.<\/p>\n

Oh, how I honored your voice and your self-assurance. You often danced to the beat of a different drummer.\u00a0 You would be outrageously and authentically you.\u00a0 What a gift; this started at a young age and continued.\u00a0 Dad and I are trying to weave the threads together that have dreadfully been unraveled in the months before your death.\u00a0 We are learning about a shift.\u00a0 Your voice changed; you did not have the same self-assurance. What happened?\u00a0 We have a strong belief that it is the teen culture.\u00a0 You could not be true to yourself as the pressures were\/are too strong. \u00a0We are burdened with so many \u201cwhat-if\u2019s.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 For now, that does not serve us.\u00a0 We are looking forward to making shifts in the teen culture in your name, our dear daughter.<\/a><\/p>\n

Love you always, Mom<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

July 2006. Dear Maya, Elated! Completely thrilled!\u00a0 High!\u00a0 These are some words to express your experience while you were in the Shapers Hair Salon getting your hair cut for the first time.\u00a0 You were looking forward to the moment for a long time.\u00a0 You initiated the idea of having a haircut.\u00a0 What has been driving…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gifts-since","category-self-expression"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p720L0-1O","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=112"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":122,"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112\/revisions\/122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mayasgifts.elisegold.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}