LIVING WITH A LOW BAR OF EXPECTATION

“I JUST WANT TO STAY OUT OF JAIL” I met with Chris yesterday for the first time.  He’s almost 30 years old, just had a son less than two weeks ago, and reports he is couch-surfing but currently staying with the baby-mama because it works out for her to get help with the baby.  She’s …

THE HIKING STICK

(Pardon me if this was put together quickly... I've got stuff to move today.) MOVE DAY Well, kind of.  We just closed on the sale of our old 10-year-old home and the purchase of our new 46-year-old home earlier this week.  Today we begin the process of transitioning.  I can only wish it was as …

RELENTLESS!

BECOMING RELENTLESS Some time ago I wrote a post about my experience climbing the Longs Peak Trail in Rocky Mountain National Park. Before I go further, I did not summit Longs, nor was it my goal to. My goals for this trail are broken down into stages. My next goal will be Chasm Lake (mostly …

0:00… GAME OVER

(I need to write this while it's all fresh in my mind, before the "raw" emotions of the moment fade away and the more sanitized perspective takes over.) This post is about "Life", but I'm approaching it from a different perspective. Isn't it fair to say that we can look at something from different perspectives and …

ALBUQUERQUE CAN BE A PROBLEM

This post will be much lighter than yesterday’s.  Afterall, can you really get intense when Bugs Bunny is the face of the post?  Today, I’m writing about what I experienced first-hand over the 2023 holidays when it came to getting off track, and then the time and effort it’s taken just to get back on …

ADDICTION (A Disease, or perhaps a war)

Years ago I came across this image while working with youth in the criminal justice system. It left a powerful impression on how I saw addiction going forward. I knew there would be a day when this picture would be a part of something I wrote. How's that New Year's resolution going?  If you read my recent …

WHERE ARE THE FLAGS

FOND MEMORIES I couldn't sleep last night... First pot of coffee started brewing just after 3:00a after I realized I wasn't finding sleep. I did a lot of thinking... a little bit of journaling, and I came to this question: "So where are you at?" It was a vague question, but one that allowed me to go several …

12:01am… What Changed?

Because I'm writing this on New Years Eve, this is going to sound like a post about New Years resolutions, but it could just as easily be appropriate for any Sunday morning... the first day of the week; the first day of the month, or "tomorrow". Not just New Years Day tomorrow... but any "tomorrow". It's not …

Listening to the Silence

I woke early this morning and headed for my retreat down in the basement where the center-piece is my espresso machine. My mind was a blank canvas that I assumed would remain blank as thoughts of writing in recent weeks have become more rare. I look at the steps I am taking and it would …

LIKE

My supervisor is a developing musician. We spend most of our time talking about how the brain is wired, how to make changes in our current life-patterns, and how to connect with our inner creative side. This certainly applies to our work with probation clients, but it becomes more meaningful when we apply it to …