As I walked into our Tuesday afternoon staff meeting all eyes were intent on Jon, our campaign manager. You could feel the intensity with which everyone's attention was directed toward him.

Suddenly, it seemed as if everyone wanted to speak at once. Ideas came pouring out of what had become a collective consciousness. Wow - the energy in that room. From complete silence to cacophony in an instant and both states were imbued with an urgency that I've scarcely experienced before.

It's that energy I feel coming from all over. It's focused and intense and it's different. At our campaign office you don't hear much sarcasm or bitterness--no blame, no self-pity. What you do hear are people who are inspired and they want to inspire others too.

Do you feel it? If you do, we want to know. We have a wall filling up with inspirational stories. The One Kalamazoo staff have all written or drawn their tale and put it up to inspire one another. Will you send us yours? If you have a story of inspiration you would like to share, send it to us.

No one on the One Kalamazoo staff, me included, is naïve enough to think that equality will just happen in Kalamazoo even if we wish really, really hard. What has happened is that we have become willing to use a different way of thinking about whom and what we are.

Gone are the antithetical knee jerk reactions that cause us to either apologize for being who we are, or to shout, shout louder, as if turning up the volume is all that is needed in order to be understood. Believe me, we know that we face the same opposition, the same slander, all of it. We simply choose to play by a new set of rules today - and they're all positive.

One thing that transition taught me was that I had to be willing to live in the solution. If I approached my life from a completely different point of view, it was possible to understand that transition was the solution to what had been a life-long crisis.

I stopped apologizing for myself - something akin to that is what is transpiring today in the national conscience of the LGBT community The finger pointing and the blame game no longer seem feel appropriate. I get up everyday and work for gay and transgender equality with a bunch of people who are inspired, who are living in the solution and they inspire many others every day.

Last night our offices were absolutely packed and buzzing with volunteers who couldn't wait to start the phone bank action. In another room a local social justice group was holding a steering committee meeting. Jon and I were busy meeting with various staff people. It was inspiring.

So, do you feel it too? I hope so and I want to hear about it. Share your inspiration with "Your Gal in Kalamazoo"