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 …

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 …

HERE’S THE PROBLEM…

There’s a lot of time spent on the trail between the Trailhead and the Summit; a lot of time for the mind to go in various directions.  I’m a reflector… a ponderer… and, as a coworker recently said, a ruminator.  At times, I can get lost out in the wilderness of my thoughts, requiring Search …

BECOMING STRONGER THAN THE EXCUSES

As a person who's spent years working with people in the throes of addiction, I am fully aware that the battle to become clean and sober is never over. The demons never really leave, they simply take up residence on the outskirts of town and await an opportune time to test our convictions... always looking …

THE MISSING PIECE

PUTTING TOGETHER A PUZZLE You open the box of a 1000-piece puzzle and dump the contents out on a table.  The pieces fall into a chaotic pile, and you begin to spread them out and turn them face up, working to establish some order to the mess.  You grab each piece without giving much thought …