An Invincible Summer - A Woman's Journey

 Much better now.  Good friends who hold you accountable and help lead you to a healing, happier place are worth their weight in gold. It took every bit of my will power to call her up and tell her I was not doing well. When I did, my best girlfriend didn’t say, “Yeah, you’re right to be mad. They’re such assholes.” She said your feelings are valid but are they true? She wanted to talk about the situation from both seats, theirs and mine.  Then she reminded me that I go out of my way to look OK on the outside and that the people who love me might not even know I am struggling.  She was right and I am grateful.  

Since the pandemic hit most of the Adult Children of Alcoholic/Dysfunction meetings have either suspended or gone to Zoom. The switch to Zoom has allowed us ACA’s to attend meetings from all around the world at any time, day or night. A young gent who missed his own in-person meeting right after COVID began to compile a list of Zoom meetings that he found by doing google searches. He located a good calendar app, began to spread the word and it caught fire. Other people saw what he was doing and sent him requests to add their meetings and now, all over the world people are using a calendar called TeamUp that has the listings, times, subjects and links to readings and resources. It is a great idea so I volunteer my service to add, change and delete meeting listings along with 3 other people. I’ve yet to see a meeting from Russia, and not much from South America but surprisingly we’ve got Ho Chi  Minh, New Zealand and even Dubai   Currently, my favorite meetings are as follo...

Today my girl moves out for what will, most likely, be the last time. It’s good. It’s time.  I am grieving, just a little, that this is the end of the storyline and a new one will begin. Hers will now have me on the periphery, which is as it should be. I am sad for a number of reasons that are hard even to put into words.  She’s a tough cookie who has, much of the time, handled the ins ands outs of having a dad with mental illness on her own. I’m here but she shoulders it herself. At times it has been way too much. That’s when she goes inside herself and I get very worried for her. This time she has a game plan that she worked out with someone she trusts. She knows who to call for emotional support and which local to call if need be. When he ends up in the hospital, not only does she worry but she also becomes his guardian. The first time it happened she was so young and did not know how to ask for help.  Older and wiser, even with a plan it won’t be easy. She adores the ...

 As a teenager, life at home was tough. Thoughts of keeping a roof over our heads, food in our stomachs and quieting the air of sadness took precedence over many other things.  There was a disconnect with school. Starting a new high school, knowing no one was one thing but starting out way behind in my studies because of a bad case of hepatitis A made it that much harder. This girl was unhappy. All that being said, I'm here to talk about the books and, in particular, East of Eden All these years I couldn't understand why I had hated freshman, sophomore and junior year english. I hated the reading assignments. I thought the books were appalling and wondered why they were raved about. I finally understand. Good books are often very sad and, truthfully, my sadness cup was overflowing. But we are just finishing up Steinbeck's East of Eden for our final book club entry and I must say that it is one of the most beautifully written books I have read in my 58 years. I am in awe. ...