I have a morning routine: Up early. Coffee on the back porch. Then my readings. My parish gives out a book every Christmas that contains each of the daily readings. That’s what I read first. Then I read a passage from Jim Manney’s What Matters Most & Why and finally I read 2024 A Book […]
I’ve been 60 years old for an entire week. This one feels like a seismic shift. I can’t believe I’m looking down the barrel of my 70th decade, if I am so lucky… With this shift, I have a lot of feelings. Let’s face it, I always have a lot of feelings. I’ve spent the […]
You don’t have the power to stop someone from drinking… You don’t have the power to cause someone to drink. How many times have I heard that sentiment in a 12-step room? Too many to count. How many times has my unconscious mind tried to deceivingly grasp onto power by using the ‘for the good […]
I’d finally finished a writing assignment. I plugged my computer in to charge it up and turned on the television to catch one episode of ‘In the Heat of the Night’ before it was time to go to the gym. I felt myself let out a deep breath to relax when the doorbell rang and […]
Do you ever think that you’re pretty solid in your recovery, only to wake up to an overwhelming feeling of frustration and dissatisfaction? That was my experience these last few weeks. Except this time, I knew that the problem was all me –cue Taylor Swift.. “It’s me, hi, I’m the problem, it’s meAt tea time, […]
14 years ago, I didn’t think that I had a problem. It was my loved ones who needed help. Not me. Boy was I wrong. If you are new to recovery, this may come as a shock, but we all need recovery. But, what exactly does that look like? Let me share some thoughts, but […]
I am a decent cook. I used to be a good cook. Cooking has taught me many things. Growing up in the 70’s & 80’s, I ate my fair share of casseroles. Back then, I was not a fan. There were too many things mixed together. I wanted food that I could identify. My mother […]
I got a call from someone lost. I will call the person, Joe. Joe was at his bottom. He’d run out of ideas. He’d tried everything he could to help his loved one deal with their addiction. He’d exhausted every idea within HIS power and he came up short. So he reached out for help. […]
I talked about sober January last post to give you an overview. Now, let’s get into the nuts and bolts of what that looks like for us. What we need to find sobriety from is our emotions or feelings. If you want to ‘try on sobriety’ for the month of January to see if it […]
Chipping away at the stigma of addiction is near and dear to my heart but it wasn’t until I was asked to speak on the topic of engaging families and parishes into recovery where I gave any thought as to how or where to start dealing with such a big job. The stigma surrounding addiction, […]