The Reward is the Journey

Last night I felt like dancing around Wizard of Oz style, as the munchkins did to celebrate the death of the Wicked Witch of the East.  Part of me still does.  It is possibly the best news I've ever heard.    Charlotte received the results following a scan she had last week that confirmed the alien's demise and departure.  It was all clear.  Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead!   She's cleared off.  Hopefully forever.  Charlotte can breathe a deep (and mindful) sigh of relief, and focus on moving forward.  2012 has been a helluva year.  We will make 2013 even bigger.    So, the witch has gone.  She must now be kept at bay.  And Charlotte is well equipped to do that.  Her fridge is the home of anti cancer superfoods (of which I was the grateful recipient with yet more delicious home cooking).  Charlotte is, unsurprisingly, paying greater attention than ever, to what she puts into her body...

Recovery is about so much more than sobriety: Fact.  Sober thinking often takes considerably longer than simply abstaining from our substance(s) of behaviour(s) of choice: Fact #2.  Practising recovery, in all one's affairs, is perhaps best thought of as the business of a lifetime...   So I am coming to believe... You can take the brandy out of the fruit cake, but you're still left with a fruit cake.  The awkward and unpalatable truth in recovery, is that the road often gets steeper and narrower before we discover the promised land.  Take the substance of behaviour of choice out of the equation and you are left with the illness.  As I was reminded by someone who's been around more than a few days, it's an 'ism' not a 'was-m'.  So what is this 'ism'?  An Internal Spiritual Maladjustment?  The I, Self, Me syndrome?  These resonate.  So too does Incredibly Short Memory.  This is why, for me, recovery is a d...

  I have been facing a number of big decisions recently.  Today, decisions are things I see as opportunities for growth.  Which isn't to say they aren't sometimes scary.  Right at the back of my wardrobe, I came across a pair of shoes I had almost forgotten I had.  I remember buying them, in Newcastle in anticipation of some vacation work experience more than ten years ago.  Their soles reminded me how little I've worn them.  That changed last week.    I have friends who truly believe that shoes are a girl's best friend.  I like shoes.  Ok, I love shoes.  Secretly, I am something of an aesthetic junkie.  Consequently, those I love most, my feet tend to loathe.  So, I have several pairs that rarely make it out of my bedroom.    This particular pair of brogues however have had a second nascence.  And, as I wore them to work last week, it occurred to me that shoes...

I've seen quite a few movies recently.  It was the BFI Film Festival which prompted more cinema trips than usual, and most recently, I enjoyed the return of 007 in Skyfall at the largest screen in Britain - the Odeon IMAX at Waterloo.  Life has felt a little like a movie recently, in that much of it seems far fetched, and removed from my usual and everyday experience.  As ever, there is plenty going on, but little that I feel I am the Director or Producer of.  I'm not familiar with this script, and the set is a largely unknown environment.  But I am in good company.  I am surrounded by friends.  And I am feeling held.    Today, it's okay for me not to know.  I have learnt to trust the process.  To trust, firstly, that there is a process and that it's unfolding.  I need not seek to control it.  All is well.  And all will be well.  What will be, will be.  And so it is...  Just for today, everything i...

Today it felt like winter had arrived.  Real winter, not just the supermarkets getting overly excited and decking out the halls well before they should, cold and crisp, and crunchy.  The apple I bit into after lunch was decidedly British.  Having developed a soft spot for pippins of the Pink Lady variety, shipped from lands afar I concede that, at this time of year, home grown are hard to beat.    I was momentarily transported to years gone by, and school days.  Yes, November has arrived!  The tiny apple created a big impression as welcome as it was unexpected.  Sometimes the ordinary can truly shine.  When we let it.        It stood out boldly; a simple yet simultaneously profound enquiry.  "How are you?... I haven't even asked..."  The tone of delivery took me by surprise.  The timing was perfect - we had been in eachother's company for a little more than three quarte...