Every day, our little girl was wheeled from the nursery to my wife’s hospital bed for a visit. About the fourth day, I wrote this poem and scotch-taped it to Courtney’s blanketed bottom, so the nursing staff would see it when they wheeled her back to the nursery.
Past These Walls
“Floating somewhere between dying and dead
I couldn’t get past these walls in my head”
Settling for Unsettling
“Significant growth means significant change which comes with significant effort. There is no winning without sacrifice, but sacrifice alone is victory . . . no matter what the results are to be.”
Everyone Wins Here
My job is to entertain and perhaps enlighten the masses with comedic, relevant material and to perform (when invited) for groups of damaged or diseased families, professionals and treatment providers. I LOVE that work! I do it more than three hundred times a year. But it comes with a price: The experience of watching addicted, alcoholic, misinformed families never get the help they need because this disease is costly.
Where’s YOUR show?
Reality TV is like saying expert parent, intelligent bigot, sleepy meth-head, honest politician, sober alcoholic. The two words don’t seem to belong together. Ok, maybe the last example might be out of place there. But alcoholics can get sober, not de-alcoholicked. Back to the television. WTF is with DWTS and all of these other inane [...]
Whine Tasting
Bitter: Never a positive, flavorful experience. Yet, for some insane, unfathomable, ridiculously evil reason, I keep reaching for that cup of hurtful, horrible hemlock again and again and again. Some days, I actually PREFER the putrid aftertaste of resentment, shame, guilt and envy. “Gimme a double! I am gonna drown my consistently successful effort and [...]
Kids and Angels
Is there anything more pure, more beautiful than the laughter of a child? I cannot think of one thing I enjoy more. I have a 2 1/2 year old son. There is no end to the laughter in our home these days. He has several types of laughs. There is the two syllable “oh, I get [...]
No Mean Feet
I HAVE FLOWN IN DARKNESS, lightning, fog, rain, wind, clouds and brilliant sunshine. Sometimes all in the same day. I have always made it to my destination, even if it wasn’t the site I had originally planned to land, even though it wasn’t the initially scheduled hour of arrival. With air travel, like life’s path, there [...]
Holiday Trappings: More Presence?
Are you happy yet? Has the season of giving allowed you to receive everything you wanted? Welcome to the paradox of the “joy vortex.” The more you take, the emptier you get. If you want to feel full, give a little more than you want. You want to feel totally complete? Give it everything you have [...]
Tools and Weapons
Like a lot of people, I used to consider this disease a penalty. I didn’t understand the first rule of survival: what doesn’t kill you…can make you unforgettable! I have a tendency to overestimate the power of the negative and ignore the potential of hope, health and heart. I have always been a glass totally empty [...]
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For My Nurses… Nursery Rhyme
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Past These Walls
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Settling for Unsettling
- Everyone Wins Here
- Where’s YOUR show?
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Shelby parts: Well I sincerely liked studying it....
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Dan Spataro: I cannot wait to share this post will all of my fa...
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Hipolito M. Wiseman: I really like your blog.. very nice colors & t...
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Mildred Aden: I am 27 years old and started smoking at the age o...
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Sharen Mateo: Today is only Day 5, but yesterday was hard. The f...
