Word Cloud

Here, courtesy of the folks at http://www.wordle.net/, is a word cloud I put together for my A. A. home group 'crew'. It includes points and concepts related to 12 Step recovery through the Alcoholics Anonymous program.
In the Wordle gallery it can be found as 'A. A. Reflections'.

Randomness

There are a couple of you folks out there that I had promised emails replies to by now. Sorry, but with this cold and little sleep my brain is mush. Soon...... promise.

I entered a CBC Radio 2 contest to see Leonard Cohen in New York. If I win I'll be wishing I hadn't procrastinated so much about renewing my passport because I can't fly into the U.S. without one. I'd crawl the 500 miles to see this show after the reviews I've seen from this tour. Winners will be announced Monday.

Had my first wife Vicki and I stayed together, yesterday, St Patrick's Day would have been our 30th anniversary. Before I left work I sent her an email greeting to mark the day and wishing her well. By the time I got up a few hours later she had replied complete with a scanned newspaper clipping from last years celebration of St Paddy's showing her toasting the camera with a pint of stout. Cheers to Big Red! She's coming to town later this month so Lynda and I might have her over for dinner. Depends on her schedule.

Lynda headed into Toronto earlier this evening with a few girlfriends to see the stage production of 'Jersey Boys'. News to follow.

I've been reading through some published reports about the correlation between addiction and those diagnosed with ADHD. Scary stats at 3 times the rate for 'normal' populations.

Tender Heart

There is an older gent who went through treatment just around the time I started working here. Let's call him John. Following Tx he joined my home group and we got to be quite good friends. We would see one another at various area meetings and he'd attend alumni meetings here at 'the house'. Last fall he decided in part because of age and health concerns that he would no longer attend meetings. John and I last talked during the Xmas holidays and he spoke with excitement about a reunion with his two sons who were going to pay a visit from out west.

Last week I ran into John's wife in a grocery store. She related how John's oldest son had taken in a friend who had lost everything and everyone that mattered in his life. The friend had become addicted to crack and needed a place to stay while he put his life back in order. The offer of a room was time limited and when his time was up he refused to leave. John's son was on his way to get assistance to remove the friend from his apartment when he was shot. He died in transit to hospital.

As she spoke I was stunned into silence, my throat closed and tears stood in my eyes. They are steeling themselves for the trip to attend the friends trial. I called and spoke to John on the weekend; we meet for coffee and a talk later today.

Intervention

I'm looking forward to beginning work next week with that teen ward. It's got the noggin in gear again formulating a plan of attack. Assessment and drug history, placement on the continuum of addiction, determining where he is in the 'stages of change', building a personal profile and family history, educational component re drug use and suspension of personality development/maturation, presentation of options, trigger identification, impulse management, recreational alternatives, goal setting, team building...........and on.....and on.

It'll be interesting trying to engage someone that young (14) in the process.

If I had one wish it would be that drugs weren't so readily available.

Prohibition and law enforcement aren't working.

Into Action

A colleague asked me a week ago to speak at a meeting tonight. I was of two minds about doing it as Lynda and I had just had our first talk but when I'm asked to do things 'program' oriented, I do it. I had assumed he was simply chairing a meeting and needed a speaker. When I arrived I found out it was his 15 year medallion celebration (you get to choose who participates in your medallion meetings - designate people for each of the readings, the slogans and the speaker). Once again I'd asked permission from our manager for time off at the beginning of my shift in order to do it. Ordinarily I don't get overly nervous but as Lynda and I had just finished figuring out what we're doing, I was pretty tightly wound. I started off kind of flat but if there's one thing that gets me excited it's talking about recovery from addiction. Once I got into it I was able to put the current personal stuff out of mind and focus on the process of personality change inherent in the 12 steps. There were a half dozen current and former staff there as well as a slew of alumni from all three of our centres. The room was at capacity - probably 80 people. My talk was well received and the evening went really well. I was glad for him; great guy.

The best way to get out of 'self' is to be of service to others. Pass it on.