November is a popular month for gratitude, given the holiday that’s named for the emotion, but my motivation this year is a little different. I’m grateful that October is over! "Isn’t that the same thing as being-in-November?" you ask reasonably. Well, not precisely. The thing is, almost every major Drama, Trauma, and Tragedy in my … Continue reading Drawing up a gratitude list
Tag: Recovery
On Physics and Fear
Our next door neighbor is learning to play guitar. I know this because his open screen door wasn’t far from our open bedroom window at nine o’clock last night. As he worked his way through the opening chords of “Smoke on the Water” (over and over and over and over and over) I consoled myself … Continue reading On Physics and Fear
Mommying, the Way It Is
This one is a painful topic. I lost custody of my kids seventeen months ago. Having weathered (Sober) the death of a spouse, the infidelity of another, the unplanned arrival (and subsequent adoption) of a late-life baby, and a host of medical problems, I let my guard down when my life finally looked like smooth sailing---and I … Continue reading Mommying, the Way It Is
Taking Off the Training Wheels (in Prayer)
When we were motorcycle-shopping, Jon jokingly threatened to buy me a bike with training wheels---though he then reassured me that he wouldn't humiliate me like that. I think the issue goes deeper than avoiding humiliation, though---what I need most is to build the gut-level confidence that the bike will, indeed, stay upright even without Jon … Continue reading Taking Off the Training Wheels (in Prayer)
On Vapors, and Vapers
Last week CBS This Morning hosted a lexicographer from the Merriam-Webster dictionary, talking about the malleability of language and the ongoing task of incorporating new words into the dictionary. Although prescriptive grammarians (unlike descriptive ones) would have you believe that our language and its rules are static, nothing could be further from the truth. (Sure, I … Continue reading On Vapors, and Vapers
Sea Legs & Side Effects
Yesterday morning I walked through a rainstorm to the gym we just joined---a Planet Fitness decorated in garish purple-and-mustard, and plastered with heartening signs proclaiming it a "No-Judgement Zone." I owned a StairMaster in my twenties, but my forties-self clearly needs some shaping-up because that thing was kicking my butt after six minutes. So I thought I'd try … Continue reading Sea Legs & Side Effects
What Paper Plates are For
There's a TV ad for an antidepressant that features a paper plate on a popsicle-stick handle with a smiley face sketched on it... Various people are holding it up in front of their faces, which (behind the paper-plate-smiles) are unhappy, disengaged, or entirely expressionless. That ad speaks not only to the experience of Depression, but also to … Continue reading What Paper Plates are For
Kana's Chronicles 