Faith Archives

8 12, 2017

Believe

Love and Recovery2020-11-11T15:25:44-08:00December 8th, 2017|Faith, Holiday, Joyful Recovery|0 Comments

Believe It's the first weekend of December and I am just returning from a blessed trip to New York City. The city is magical in December. The Big Apple most definitely knows how to go big for the holiday season. While in the city my friend and I took in lots of experiences. We came to New York under the guise of attending a personal development seminar. And, really it was just a great excuse to escape the humdrum life of sunny Southern California, almost always 74 degrees and beautiful. The mere thought of New York City gets my blood flowing. It's exciting. It's gritty and alive. It's a myriad of cultures piled high into the towering buildings. It's rich with all the great things this land has to offer as well as humbled by the homelessness that haunted me at every turn. Christmas in the city is brilliant [...]

19 11, 2017

What If The Possibilities are Endless?

Love and Recovery2020-11-11T15:25:45-08:00November 19th, 2017|Early Sobriety, Faith, Fear, Finding Me, Joyful Recovery, Showing Up, Vulnerability in Sobriety|0 Comments

What If? Do you ever get stuck in fear, afraid to make a decision? Do you find yourself full of the what-ifs? What if it doesn’t work out? What if it’s the wrong color? What if I don’t succeed? What if I don’t like it after I buy it? What if I don’t want to go after I purchase the ticket? What if it’s raining that night? What if I don’t like the new people I will work with? I don’t really suffer from the “what if’s” too often. I am decisive, and I generally go with my intuition whether the subject-in-question is big or small. But I do hear a lot of people debating decisions…mulling them over, overthinking, and so on. And that’s their process. It’s just not a process I can deal with. I make decisions and move on. In most cases. ? Dating [...]

15 11, 2017

Joyful Sobriety

Love and Recovery2020-11-11T15:25:45-08:00November 15th, 2017|Early Sobriety, Faith, Finding Me, Joyful Recovery|0 Comments

I spritzed myself with my favorite perfume on my way out the door this morning. I stopped in at the local surf shot to grab a cup of brew and listen to tales of surfing from the local guys. I absolutely love that I get to stop in at a surf shop. It’s so different yet similar to Arizona where the hunters stop in at the gas station for coffee before heading out for a hunt. I love being a part of the local scene that is so nostalgically Huntington Beach. I savor this feeling that the beach is a part of me now, just like the mountains and pine trees will forever be a part of my heart. I’m sporting a new outfit, and I am feeling good… confident. There’s something about a new outfit that inspires me take a little more time in getting ready. You know, [...]

27 10, 2017

Follow Your Heart

Love and Recovery2020-11-11T15:25:46-08:00October 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, [...]

14 04, 2016

Sober is the new black…

Love and Recovery2020-11-11T15:25:47-08:00April 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 [...]

11 11, 2015

Lifted Up In Sobriety

Love and Recovery2020-11-11T15:25:47-08:00November 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 [...]

21 10, 2015

I Choose to be Authentic

Love and Recovery2020-11-11T15:25:47-08:00October 21st, 2015|Early Sobriety, Faith, Recovery Stories|2 Comments

This article was written by Rene, founder of Love & Recovery, and first published on TinyBuddha.com. Click on the link to read the full article, Why We Need to Share Our Honest Feelings. She hurt my feelings. She was leaving soon to live in another country for up to six months. I knew that if I held on to my hurt, this resentment would fester, and my best friend would be the recipient of my anger. I prayed for courage to find the right words. I didn’t want to hurt her. I knew I had to say something or I would allow my hurt to manifest into something huge. The courage came, and I acted immediately. I dialed; my heart pounded. I was so afraid. She answered. The lump in my throat made me silent. I began to weep. I gently uttered, “I’m calling to tell you that you [...]

22 07, 2015

Shimmy in the Light of the Spirit

Love and Recovery2020-11-11T15:25:48-08:00July 22nd, 2015|Faith, Joyful Recovery|10 Comments

So...you think you can dance? This Saturday is National Dance Day. Just writing that sentence makes me nervous. Yes...nervous! My dance skills have always been meager at best, and they weren’t enhanced when I was drinking, but the liquid courage allowed me to occasionally cut a rug. Ha! In my now zero-proof life, dancing scares the holy heck out of me. But secretly or not so secretly, now, I have a strange desire to dance. Flipping channels on the telly* last night, I came across the hit series, So You Think You Can Dance...a show that truly inspires me. And, the creator of the show, Nigel Lythgoe, also established National Dance Day in 2010. National Dance Day encourages Americans to embrace dance as a fun and positive way to maintain good health and fight obesity. Soooo….all of this talk about dance got me thinking. Why am I afraid to dance [...]

27 05, 2015

Look for the Light

Love and Recovery2015-07-26T22:02:26-08:00May 27th, 2015|Early Sobriety, Faith, Recovery Stories|0 Comments

I'm sitting in traffic on Pacific Coast Highway gazing at the ocean and remembering the dark days that came with the city of Santa Monica from 2010 to 2012. I loved it here during that time. I was a tiny little speck among millions of people. No one knew my name, and I could slip into any one of thousands of liquor stores that are on every corner in Los Angeles. I was anonymous and could dive into my oblivion, and then spend my nights at that wretched apartment that sat high above the Pacific Ocean and overlooked the Santa Monica Pier. It was such a dichotomy. A beautiful view from a cluttered, dark mess. And there I would stand, looking out of the window with my best friend vodka and I would think how great life was. I enjoyed being unknown in my last years of drinking, so I [...]

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