Do you ever hear someone speak about something ordinary that you’ve heard a million times, except this time it is as if you’ve heard it completely anew and understand it in a way that you never had before? I think these are ‘God moments’ where I imagine that he’s saying the words loud and slow, […]
I watched a documentary called “All the Queens Horses” about a lady named Rita Crundwell who was a city comptroller in the small town of Dixon Illinois. Rita lived alone and kept to herself. No one thought too much about it because she had a large horse farm and she stayed busy caring for and showing […]
One of the best things about attending a twelve-step meeting is that you can talk about anything without fear or judgment. You will not have anyone wag a finger in your face and say, “Shame on you.” In fact, most of the time when I share, understanding heads will nod an affirmation of ‘I’ve been […]
Killing mosquitos reminds me of my program of recovery. You see mosquitos are pests. They carry disease and make me itch. It seems that it would be a good thing to kill them. But, then we started to notice that when we spray to kill these pests, we are also taking out large […]
Yesterday, I did a really dumb thing. I took my contacts out to rest my eyes and could not find my saline solution. Hoping that my daughter had left some of her solution behind, I ran to the upstairs bathroom. There, I found a small bottle that looked a lot like my saline […]
I walk my dogs almost every morning. I take a shorter loop than I’d like, but the standard poodle overheats quickly, so I don’t go much further than a mile. Most days, I will bring them home and wait till the end of the day and go on a longer walk for me. I wait […]
I remember the early days of my son’s addiction. I felt paralyzed. I sat with this new information alone. Would I be able to tell anyone? What would they think of him? What would they think of me? I looked around with new eyes. I saw families–they all seemed so normal compared to how I […]
I am not alone when I mention that I love the show “This is Us.” There are too many good qualities to list. But, my favorite thing is that they scoot around in time, giving us insight into the depth of each character. It satisfies a curiosity that I have always held about how our […]
The last couple of posts were about steps one and two. Step one reminds me that I am powerless over many things but most especially over the addictions of others. I must firmly accept that powerlessness before I can consider reaching for help outside of myself. Step two stresses the need for me to grow […]
I used to facilitate an expressive writing class at our county jail. One of our fun activities involved using something called a story starter. A story starter is a way to give the writer a place to begin. I would give each young lady a slip of paper with a sentence written on it and […]