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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

EVERYTHING COMES WITH A PRICE

Can a person find balance when they need to make extreme changes?  This is where I’m going in this post. Those words came to me as I laid down the other night after another hard workout... “Everything comes with a price…”   It was Wednesday night, Day 16 of a streak dating back to August 29th …

I WANNA…UNTIL I DON’T WANNA

I WANNA… It’s a weekly topic of conversation in my office… sobriety, getting out of the legal system… getting “my life” together.  I wanna get clean… I wanna get sober… I wanna get off probation… I wanna get back into my kids lives… It came up when I was a basketball coach… I wanna win …

GANNETT PEAK

We live in a culture that more and more seems to require immediate gratification… immediate results, in order to hold our attention.  If the reward doesn’t come quickly, we move on to other sources in search for that dopamine spike into our brain.  However, those truly significant dreams we hold deep within our heart are …

THE MAGIC OF THE MOUNTAIN

Chasm Lake with the Diamond of Longs Peak at top center Chasm Lake lies just below the diamond face of Longs, sitting at about 11,800 ft elevation.   It’s almost 9 miles out-and-back (up and down would be a better descriptor) with an elevation gain of between 2400-2500 feet.   It’s a bear!  Doable…but it will cost …

A Lesson from the Peanut Butter Jar

Okay… maybe this is silly or stupid, but maybe not so much. I was making my breakfast “shake” this morning and I reached the bottom of the peanut butter jar. I worked my spoon diligently in an effort to salvage as much peanut butter as I could before tossing the jar in the recycle. As …