Author Archives: Guest Blogger
Acceptance, Depression, Family, Loss
HE LOVES ME HE LOVES ME NOT
My Dad wasn’t great at paying child support (he resented the $280 a month). I wound up spending most of my life trying to prove to my Dad that I was worth the money. My father had a MSW and made a very comfortable living. He drove new cars and built two brand new houses. My mother and I drove used cars, wore clothes from the thrift store and counted our pennies. In some ways I am still trying to… Read More
Aging, Anxiety, Appreciation, Character, Clarity, Compassion, Courage, Death, Growth, Hanging In There, Inspiration, Life
GAME OVER
I have never reposted a blog before. And if I have it certainly wasn’t two months after the initial publication. But the man who wrote this wonderful blog died suddenly yesterday. Carl Rahn Griffith was a very insightful man. He came upon some difficult times. He learned a lot and he writes about it with clarity and wisdom. I am reposting it today in his honor and his memory. Take some time, read it, learn from Carl. And cherish the day… Read More
You Can Never Be Too Rich or Too Thin – Unless You Weigh 89lbs
I quit eating food one time for about a year. I called it being vegan. My Uncle called it “hot”, he has no boundaries and likes submissive women. The hospital called it “anorexic”. It was my junior year of high school. I started the year weighing 112lbs and eating anything I wanted. I was always super skinny. I tell people that I used to weigh 400 lbs though. Everybody likes a weight loss success story. Nobody likes a naturally thin… Read More
Gratitude, Hanging In There, Health
APPRECIATING THE PRESENT
Here’s the thing: you can’t change the past and you can’t predict the future. We know these things on a fundamental level yet we do little things every day to suggest otherwise. I get stuck on the little things, I complain about the little things. It’s nearly constant, and it’s a perpetual New Year’s resolution of mine to knock it off. But once in a while I’ll happen upon a picture from 3 years ago and get some forced… Read More
13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do by Amy Morin LCSW
This blog was sent to me today and I felt it was worth sharing here. I did not actually ask the author if I could post it, but it’s all over the web, so I hope she doesn’t mind. It comes from a book called 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do by Amy Morin. The book came out in 2014 and has been translated into over 23 languages. I say buy it. Mentally strong people have healthy habits. They… Read More
Acceptance, Action, Aging, Courage, Disappointment, Growth, Hanging In There
GAME OVER
Unprecedented numbers of white-collar workers are facing the prospect of losing their jobs; this has happened to blue-collar workers over many years and, somewhat patronisingly, been deemed inevitable/acceptable and a necessary trait of industry modernising via automation, etc. There has been little sympathy for such job losses. With white-collar workers the reaction has been somewhat different, largely because this impacts a whole different demographic and is part of the narrative chronicling the demise of the middle-class, its impact on consumerism… Read More
Giving Back, Gratitude, Growth, Hanging In There, Living Fully
FOURTH ANNIVERSARY OF MY ACCIDENT
This Thanksgiving weekend marked the 4th anniversary of my near-death accident when an out-of-control SUV with a sleeping driver barreled into my bicycle. I was an experienced cyclist taking all possible precautions — I was wearing a helmet and bright clothing, obeying traffic laws, and riding on the right shoulder of a sparsely travelled country road. It was 1:06 pm on a Saturday afternoon and everything changed in a split second. I think about that moment in time every day.… Read More
THE SPIRIT OF THE EXPERIENCE
The morning felt delicious, as did the liberating thrill of pedaling a bike out of Paris to the woods. For the past two weeks I had been imagining myself beneath a canopy of shimmering poplars, drinking in their green brew. And now here we were, on a family bike outing, a picnic lunch in our backpacks, the weather clear and warm. We got on the bike path, a block away, and rode up to the Parc de la Villette, then… Read More
TRUST
It is OFFICIAL; I have now been sober longer than I drank. This milestone almost seems surreal and I find myself wondering how I got here, to today. I remember those agonizing months, weeks, days and hours before I made THE decision. The decision I was out of control, the decision to live or to die, the decision to walk into a room and tell a bunch of people that I was an alcoholic. I remember those agonizing hours, days,… Read More
MISFIST
It happened AGAIN! I have been clean and sober for 22 years, 347 days. I know by the hatred, the dread, and all the excuses I come up with not to attend large parties that I am NOT comfortable in those environments. You know the company xmas parties, milestone birthdays, the parties where there is lots of alcohol and lots of falseness. You have probably been to one or two of them yourself. I never was good at these so… Read More