All I wanted to do was go down to the hotel lobby, eat some breakfast, and return to my room in time for an eleven o'clock telephone interview with a Florida based magazine. And yet, as so often happens in my life, someone interrupted that quest to tell me her story."I'm sixty-two years old," she said without provocation from me.I stopped. No words came from my mouth."And I am so sick of this cart that if you read one day that a hotel employee pushed her house keeping cart off the roof you'll know it was...
And we remember them and we honor them.
First of all I need to confess that I know nothing about professional football. I don't follow it except on Super Bowl Sunday when the national mandate is to care and to put money in the office pool. However, driving home this evening I heard a news report that left me a new fan of the NFL. A couple of players have come out in support of same sex marriage -- Brendon Ayanbadejo of the Baltimore Ravens and Chris Kluwe of the Minnesota Vikings.I never heard of either name before my drive home.At least for t...
Do something. That's all there is to it. When we feel overwhelmed we get stuck and the more we feel stuck the worse things appear.When I was a child the Jeep or pick up truck in which we rode sometimes got stuck in the sand. There's a way to get out of that situation and there's a way to dig yourself in deeper.I don't often drive in sand washes even though I do still ride around in a Jeep.However, I do often feel overwhelmed.Here's what I've learned and what I've learned about not feeling overwhelmed is ...
Let them. Take them up on the offer. I recently sent a friend out to buy toilet paper and aluminum foil. She was happy to run the errand and I was happy to have the supplies.In a home of recovery pride and the American spirit of "I can do it myself," have no place.Besides. People feel good when they are needed and when they can serve a purpose greater than themselves.Give the gift of asking people for help. Especially when the help is already offered.
There are mountains to move.
While my life shrunk to a room or two over the long holiday weekend life outside our home of recovery carried on. While we set alarms for middle of the night medication and before medication snacks other lives began and, on our street, other lives ended.Monday evening I decided it was time for me at least to step outside and take a walk. Once outside, it took me a second to realize that the street was packed with cars -- blocked with cars. There was no more room for parking and so vehicles were left wher...
Or at least I'd hate to be a gallbladder in these times of what we currently call medical phenomenon. Back in the day gallbladder surgery was a huge undertaking. These days its almost out patient surgery. But that's not the reason I'd hate to be a gallbladder. I'd hate to be a gallbladder because, if I were a gallbladder, no one would miss me when I was gone. As far as that goes, no one would even know my purpose while I was around and that's way too much of an existential dilemma for anyone to bear. Mor...
One thing I've learned over the past several weeks is that when it becomes impossible to keep all the balls in the air it's okay to let a few of them drop. Not only is it okay, it sometimes becomes essential. It's also okay or even necessary to ask for help locating the dropped balls. It's also okay or necessary to ask for help keeping the essential balls in the air.In families illness doesn't just happen to the person with the diagnoses. Everyone suffers and everyone lets things drop and slide. We're hu...
This week's Torah portion is Ekev (Deuteronomy 7:12-11:25). Most of this last Book of the Torah involves Moses ripping into the Children of Israel in one last ditch effort to make sure they cross the Jordan an intact nation. So it is that Moses reminds them of their accomplishments as well as their failures. He reviews and cautions with the full knowledge that their crossing cannot be his. In Chapter 9 Verse 10 Moses reminds the Children that after spending forty days and forty nights on the Mountain he ...
