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So far Love and Recovery has created 47 blog entries.
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10 11, 2017

Families, Forgiveness and Recovery

2020-11-11T15:25:46-08:00November 10th, 2017|Families Recover, Recovery Stories|0 Comments

  It was June 8, 1963. He rolled into town without a dime to his name. Stranded in a small Arizona town, yet he didn't feel stranded. I don't think stranded is a feeling he has ever felt. He was determined. He was resourceful. He acted on instinct. He was young and on fire. He was made of the streets. He couldn't be taken down by the small fact that he was flat broke in a western town on his way to the great state of California. He made his way into the local bar. The Canyon Club. The neon lights lit up the night with promises of comrade-re and hope. He shook hands and made friends quickly. People liked him, and they wanted to help. There were a few men who saw promise in this whipper snapper from Ohio. He was confident and cocky. Haley Gonzales bought him a few [...]

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9 11, 2017

Flies and Showing Up

2020-11-11T15:25:46-08:00November 9th, 2017|Finding Me, Joyful Recovery, Showing Up|0 Comments

  Since coming out of the "writer's closet," I haven't been sleeping too well. My mind is buzzing with ideas. It's amazing and all, but sometimes it's like a pesky little fly inside my head buzzing and buzzing, and I just want to slap it down! Hmmm...a reference to flies. How funny. I have been battling flies in my life for about six months now. I am being totally serious. Every single day, I find a fly or two in my house, and they drive me absolutely bonkers. OMG! I am seriously having a revelation as I write this. So, I have a little dog named Stitch. He does do his "business" in the back yard on occasion. For the most part, I take him on walks, and he does his business around town, and I am pretty diligent about picking up his stuff, but I still have flies. It [...]

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8 11, 2017

Unleashing Me

2020-11-11T15:25:46-08:00November 8th, 2017|Early Sobriety, Finding Me, Joyful Recovery|0 Comments

  I feel wild and free. There is an energy pulsing through my body like I have never known. It's exhilarating. There is excitement in the air. And, I can't help but to smile and shine. Literally, I feel like there is an inner light surrounding my body. I want to dance and sing. My soul is on fire. It is shouting out "Thank you! Thank you for making space. Thank you for tapping in. Thank you for not rejecting me. Thank you for giving life to what we were called here to do. Thank you for listening. Thank you for being brave. Thank you for going deep." I have been unleashed! You know that feeling when you step off a roller coaster? That's what it feels like. You can't stop talking about it. You're energized. You're alive. Seriously, this shit is crazy. And it all started with a journal [...]

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5 11, 2017

Coming Out of the Writer’s Closet

2020-11-11T15:25:46-08:00November 5th, 2017|Early Sobriety, Fear, Finding Me, Joyful Recovery|0 Comments

  Pst. Pst. I have a secret. I am feeling all giddy inside. Seriously, I haven't felt like this since I was a kid. Giddy with excitement. Giddy with an I-can't-eat feeling in my stomach. Giddy that I have a secret that I am going to whisper to 1000 Facebook friends. I have lived my life consumed by the fear of what others will think of me, in all aspects. When I graduated college, I got a stale job in my hometown as an insurance adjuster. It didn't sound glamorous or light my fire in any way, but I took it anyway. Why? Well, I wanted to stay in my college town, and it was a professional job. I figured I should just take what I can get and see if I like it. Do you know where "take-what-you-can-get-and-see-if-you-like-it" will lead you? It led me straight to all fours, crawling under [...]

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1 11, 2017

Asking for Forgiveness

2020-11-11T15:25:46-08:00November 1st, 2017|Early Sobriety, Forgiveness|0 Comments

    She was my mentor. She trained me in my first job out of college (sales) and she was the best. And much later in life, she taught me one of the greatest lessons of my life. A lesson that still seems a bit unbelievable to me. A lesson in forgiveness. Now this may sound feminist but after a long career in sales, I believe that women make some of the best sales people. Some of us listen very well. We also tend to be caretakers. So, when our clients mention that they are interested in skeet shooting, and we run across a cool skeet shooting article, we send it to them. It's the little things that make a great sales person. The listening. The follow up. The attention to details. She did all of that. And she taught me how to do all of that by being an [...]

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27 10, 2017

Follow Your Heart

2020-11-11T15:25:46-08:00October 27th, 2017|Faith, Joyful Recovery|0 Comments

It sounds so damn cliche.  Just follow your heart and watch what unfolds. Right?I have always been a risk taker. In fact, I pride myself on being able to take big effing risks. I have enjoyed telling people that I just quit my six-figure job to pursue the life I have been dreaming of.  I did that in my 30's, and my mantra for the year was "I would rather be poor and happy than rich and miserable." Whoa! Did I really tell myself that for a year? Holy shit! I did. And, guess what? I was broke. I earned $35,000 that year working part time for a law firm in a marketing role. So, here's the deal. When I was earning six figures, I was a sales person and a damn good one at that. I was a smart and efficient sales person.  I didn't make too many calls, [...]

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30 07, 2017

Beautiful Truth

2020-11-11T15:25:46-08:00July 30th, 2017|Early Sobriety, Recovery Stories|0 Comments

      The big beautiful truth! Wow! It sounds so easy. There's some old adage about the "ugly truth of things." It's funny, but upon reflection, I find that there's nothing ugly about the truth. It's an old story that I have been replaying in my mind for years. The false story is this. That I'm not enough just as I am. That somehow if I act and do like others, I will be liked and accepted. That pretending to be something I'm not is way better than just being good ol' me. Growing up and into my early adulthood, I have been a chameleon like no other. Tell me how to dance, and I will dance for you. When I dated a cowboy, I became a cowgirl with a big belt buckle and ropers to match. When I dated an iron man, I became an athlete (even though [...]

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14 04, 2016

Sober is the new black…

2020-11-11T15:25:47-08:00April 14th, 2016|Faith, Joyful Recovery, Recovery Stories|0 Comments

Sunday, February 22, 2015 is my seven year anniversary of sobriety. When we moved to Richmond, VA four years ago I was grateful for a fresh start; not for myself but for Sugar-britches. But guess who told our new friends about his mama’s recovery? Sugar-britches! Guess who won’t let a sober anniversary go by without going to an AA meeting to get my poker chip? Sugar-britches! He says, “Mama, it’s kinda a big deal”.  Well, if he’s talking about God’s Grace, then he is so right! For Valentine’s Day, Prince Charming gave me a fancy set of medallions to put in a shadowbox. Each one has the Roman numeral for the year of sobriety it signifies. I have the actual plastic poker chips, but he thought I would be proud to showcase the fancy ones since “I LOVE fancy”! Be still, Heart. I have decided to embrace my story and [...]

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11 11, 2015

Lifted Up In Sobriety

2020-11-11T15:25:47-08:00November 11th, 2015|Faith, Joyful Recovery, Recovery Stories|0 Comments

Having lived in Northern Arizona the majority of my life, I have come to love the great outdoors.  Hiking, biking and camping have always been at the top of my list.  I find stability, which I lacked in my growing up years, in Mother Nature.  We have such a variety of animals in the north woods, of which most I have been privileged to observe. My dream has always been to travel to Canada and to see some of it's wonders of nature.  I saw a documentary on television about the migration of geese that happens naturally in Canada. Seeing this miracle of Mother Nature is on my bucket list. When I ponder all of the wonders that happen right in my back yard, I feel the sense of my higher power working tirelessly for all of us.  It was no wonder, when I came upon this story about the [...]

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1 11, 2015

Sweet Soulful Sobriety

2020-11-11T15:25:47-08:00November 1st, 2015|Early Sobriety, Joyful Recovery, Recovery Stories|0 Comments

She was the problem. She was wild. I am not talking a little wild…I am talking wild to the core. She was so much fun. I just loved her, but she was the problem. It seemed that every time we got together, the cops were called and there was a ton of drama. Yes…she was the problem. We got off on being as crazy as possible, and I only recall memories of our time together with fondness. But deep down, I felt that if I distanced myself from her, I would distance myself from the craziness of alcoholism. I didn’t even realize that I was an alcoholic at the time. So, I walked away…somewhat consciously and somewhat unconsciously. Our lives diverged and we didn’t talk for many years. We didn’t have a falling out. We just simply migrated away from each other. We lived only a few short blocks from [...]

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