Loopholes … if there is anything an alcoholic or addict likes it’s loopholes. I’ve spent a lifetime trying to get out from underneath laws, rules, guidelines and even the suggested steps of Twelve Step recovery. “That doesn’t apply to me. I know best.” That, sadly, is all too often my mantra. In my active drinking […]

We are all wounded. The more I work with alcoholics and addicts the more I realize that we all carry wounds from our past. Unfortunately in America it has been acceptable for far too long to remain “wound identified.” That is, we use our victim hood as our identity. We use it to elicit sympathy […]

Can salvation be found in a Styrofoam cup? I am beginning to think so. Let me explain. Yesterday was day three of a three-day weekend. I went into the weekend with three goals. One: Go through the stacks of old mail and resolve any open issues. Two: Rake up and bag all the leaves in […]

I long fantasized about winning the lottery. When I was an active drunk, I was certain it would get me sober. When I was spiritually empty, I was certain it would fulfill me. Now, years later, I am grateful thatthe universe did not fulfill my wish. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said: “No change of circumstances […]

Apparently I think better with my feet in a bucket of water. At least that was the case this past Saturday. For Christmas, a couple who has befriended my wife and me got me a gift certificate to a local reflexology spa. I was jacked. A foot rub coupled with ninety minutes of massage. Merry Christmas […]

I see them every first and third Tuesday evening. Same meeting, different faces … with the exception of an occasional retread. My wife and I take a Twelve Step meeting into a local detox. Though we are there every other week the residents are only there for five days. Since the faces are typically new–the […]

Getting sober or overcoming an addiction (drugs, food, shopping, binge-watching Game of Thrones, etc.) to placate someone else rarely works. We need to want it for ourselves. We need to make it our number one priority in order to foster the willingness to do whatever it takes to get and stay sober. In recovery, willingness […]

God loves imperfect people. This world is messy and imperfect. We are here to learn lessons. Like a beginning pianist learning to play Chopin, we don’t get it right the first time or the second. If you are as musically ungifted as me, you may not get it perfect even after months and months of […]

In every contact with others there is an impact on our energy level. Most of us are conditioned to think of others as either giving or taking energy. When we are sapped of energy we view the person on the other end of the relationship as an energy vampire–people who are either on the attack […]