"Just sit with it. Feel all the things you're feeling."

Good advice given to me by a good friend, about getting through the next week, which will include a memorial service for the victims of the Long Island serial killer on the beach where they were found (Tuesday), testifying at a city council hearing about a shitty piece of newly proposed legislation (Wednesday), producing NYC's International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers (Saturday).

2011 has been a rough year. People I know died. People I didn't know but who shared a profession with me were discovered as decomposed bodies on a beach on Long Island. I watched friends suffer both physical and emotional pain. I suffered some emotional pain myself, plus created some in others.

I want to numb it out. But it will, in the long run, serve me better to sit with it, feel all the things, and be present for the pain. So, here we go.