Recovery. Sobriety. Living Wise.
Where are the Good Men? Charlie Brown has always been for me an illustration of goodness, a kind of compass that points to true north. Before I got sober, I sometimes felt like Alice in Wonderland when she slipped down the rabbit hole: reality no longer mattered, truth had become fiction, good people were now bad, heroes now villains. When I climbed out from my … Continue reading Finding Goodness
The first real job I ever had was delivering newspapers on the north slope of Queen Anne Hill. I was a paper boy for three years and was responsible for my own collections. At the end of each month I would visit each home on my route and announce myself: “Collecting for the Seattle Times!” There were many lessons I learned from my days as a … Continue reading The Real Work of a Paper Boy
Every now and again I like to revisit posts from the past to see how they might speak to the present moment. This post speaks louder to me now than when it was first published in 2017. I hope it speaks to you as well. This past year I’ve found myself struggling, yet again, with questions of why we treat each with contempt, indifference and … Continue reading Surviving in the Moment
On this anniversary of the signing of the Armistice ending the First World War my thoughts have gone to wars that never end and a peace that can’t be found. The Armistice we commemorate was not a call for a German unconditional surrender. Instead it signaled a suspension of hostilities, a break in the fighting, a call for a negotiated settlement. It was neither decisive … Continue reading Surrender
“The heart has its own language. The heart knows a hundred thousand ways to speak.” ~ Rumi During my frequent phone visits with Doris, my mother-in-law, she usually takes a moment to catch me up on the latest with her little chihuahua-corgi-mystery mix, Jada. It occurred to me that animals often have one of the most direct routes to our hearts. Think back to an … Continue reading Language of the Heart