Jess Mahler

If you would know one thing about me, know this: I am stubborn. Stubborn like the mountains I live among, reaching for the sky after a billion years. Stubborn like the trees surrounding me, growing back again and again from their roots. Stubborn like my people, still standing after all these years.

Stubbornness is my greatest strength and deepest flaw. I am who I am, good and bad, because once upon a time a small seed within me realized that there were those who sought to destroy me and refused to allow them the victory.

Today my challenge is learning when my stubbornness is harmful. When it becomes arrogance, a closed mind and hard heart.

To paraphrase: this is the heart of Jess, the rest is details.

(Some details: adopted, queer, disabled, neurodivergent, white settler, Jewish, writer, parent, herbalist and forager, anti-capitalist. Learning to be anti-racist and learning about decolonization.)

Avatar is a gryphon by @amaranth
Header is same gryphon in the mountains.