You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You’re on your own.
And you know what you know.
And You are the one who’ll decide where to go.
– Dr. Seuss
Article written by Alex Blackwell. Connect with me on Facebook.
Change can be painful and growth can catch us by surprise. My family experienced both last weekend. Beginning last Thursday evening and continuing through Sunday, it was clear these four days would become a marker in our lives – a time we could point to years from now and still feel the significance and impact it had on each one of us.
Brandon and Andrew, my two sons, each experienced separate situations, but both came away with the same awareness, and perhaps a dose of eye-opening shock, that life moves on, things change, and what we have one day may be gone the next. My wife, Mary Beth, fully aware of the necessity for change, welcomed the change she experienced and used it to take a significant step forward in her life.
My daughters and I witnessed, first hand, the exhilaration change can bring to people’s lives and we also show a hint of sadness and a sense of loss that can also be attributed to change. By Monday, however, we all felt hope for our lives; for what was on the way; for the beginning of next. Read more
Keep the lesson, but throw away the experience. – Author Unknown
You may notice the headline for today’s post, How to Live Without Alcohol for 100 Days?, is in the form of a question; not a statement. The reason for this is because I don’t know the answer. But, I want to find out.
I have always experienced the gap, the thin line in my soul between alcoholism and sobriety as paper thin and always in danger of being erased. There is plenty of family history to suggest both a propensity and a genetic pre-disposition for alcoholism to surface inside me at any given time. It is a disease I have narrowly escaped most of my life – and I want to continue to do so.
My attempt to go 100 days without drinking a beer or having a glass of wine will not erase my tendencies to drink for the wrong reasons and it certainly will not give me any moral ground to stand on if I am indeed successful. I just want to see if I can do it. Read more
The unexamined life is not worth living. – Socrates
Article written by Alex Blackwell. Connect with me on Facebook.
April brings rain to the Midwest – a lot of rain and the possibility of severe weather, too. The cold air that once held a tight grip is now being usurped by the warmer, but more unstable air coming in from the south.
The clash of the two air masses creates an imbalance as well as instability in the atmosphere. At times the deafening noise from the thunder drowns out the sweet sounds of the replenishing rain.
Startled by the booming reverberation of the thunder, our attention is momentarily diverted. After the last echo of thunder rumbles out of ear-shot, we can return to listening to the rain and, if we choose, we can feel it heal the earth after a particularly harsh winter.
It’s like this in our personal lives, too. We can be startled by what we keep down deep inside of us. We become surprised by its noise when it demands our attention. We are shocked by its force and energy. We may forget the goodness that continues to exist in each one of us when we are reminded to deal with the unpleasant and uncomfortable parts of our souls, too. Read more
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. – Reinhold Niebuhr
How to live 100 days without alcohol?
I don’t know the answer. I only made it to day 53.
The 53rd day was last Wednesday, June 25, the day after my father-in-law’s funeral. Mary Beth and I went to her father’s beach house to spend the day with her brothers and sisters before heading back to Kansas.
We wanted to use this day to begin healing. The beach has a distinct calmness about it. The repetitive sound of the waves brushing up on the shore before retreating back into the ocean is a reminder there is still some measure of certainty and predictability left in this world. While we can never be sure what each day may hold for us, we can be comforted by certain rules of Nature which will always remain true. It just happens another rule of Nature’s is one day we will all return to the sea. So, we gathered to comfort each other and to be comforted.
Late in the afternoon, and completely exhausted by the emotional and physically toil the last five days had on my mind, body and spirit, I craved a beer. A cooler was brought down a few hours earlier that further exacerbated my temptation. Read more
I’ll embrace every moment I’m given. There’s a reason I’m alive for a blink of an eye. – Mercy Me
Last Friday was a long day. Mary Beth underwent a surgical procedure for an issue she has been experiencing for quite some time. Earlier that morning, the unspoken words between us were deafening as we were preparing to leave for the hospital. Although unspoken, we both felt the anxiety nonetheless.
This day was indeed different. Our routines had been interrupted and our life felt like it had been placed on hold, if only for a little while. The surgical procedure she was about to receive is somewhat radical and general anesthesia would be used. The risks associated with both the procedure and anesthesia gave us both reasons for concern. However, either one of us acknowledged this or talked about it. By doing so, we felt, would only give it more credit; more likelihood of happening. Read more
Pain is no longer pain when it is past. – Margaret J. Preston
Article written by Alex Blackwell. Connect with me on Facebook.
Emotional pain, like physical pain, can tell you something. Although not pleasant and very uncomfortable to endure, the pain you have suffered in your life can create tremendous value and purpose if you allow it to do so.
Last Friday night Mary Beth and I were driving home from a rare dinner alone. The topic of our parents came up. We both struggle with certain aspects of how we were raised as children. My wife and I are still healing some wounds that were inflicted many years ago.
The purpose of today’s post is not to bash my parents. I strongly believe that my parents, and my wife’s parents, did not consciously or deliberately set out to cause either one of us pain. But our reality suggests that the adults we are today, for better or for worse, is a product of the pain we experienced as children. Read more
Article written by Alex Blackwell. Connect with me on Facebook.
Kansas City was spared from a devastating ice storm yesterday. Our friends in Oklahoma were not as lucky.
Mary Beth and I made all of the necessary preparations. We checked the batteries in the flashlights, made sure we had plenty of bottled water and canned food, and made certain our gas fireplace was working.
The storm hit us with a glancing, but substantial blow and we are still standing. We are still functioning because we didn’t lose our power.
Throughout the night I fought sleep because I wanted to hear the storm as it approached; I didn’t want it to surprise me. Laying in the darkness with the warmth of my wife next to me, my mind raced back to all of those times in my life when I had to survive similar storms. Read more
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