styofa doing anything
if i look back, i am lost
ojovivo
$LAYYYTER
izzy's playlists!
will byers stan first human second
Lint Roller? I Barely Know Her
NASA
roma★
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TVSTRANGERTHINGS
Origami Around
Show & Tell
❣ Chile in a Photography ❣
"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
noise dept.
Misplaced Lens Cap
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祝日 / Permanent Vacation
trying on a metaphor
seen from Sri Lanka
seen from Malaysia
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seen from Pakistan
seen from United States
seen from United States
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seen from Türkiye
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@whaticannotdo
Treating disabled people with kindness and respect shouldn’t be seen as praiseworthy or extraordinary, it should be seen as common fucking decency.
Treating all people with kindness and dignity regardless of dis/ability is what I try to practice.
The Only Requirement for Membership
I believe AA's Third Tradition doesn't care who you are, what you believe, or whatever other problems you have (e.g., drug addiction, mental illness).
Our membership ought to include all who suffer from alcoholism. Hence we may refuse none who wish to recover. Nor ought A.A. membership ever depend upon money or conformity. Any two or three alcoholics gathered together for sobriety may call themselves an A.A. group, provided that, as a group, they have no other affiliation.
- Third Tradition (Long form)
It doesn't even require your alcoholism to be your biggest problem. Our consumption of alcohol, the Big Book tells us, is just a symptom of other problems - with our thinking, ego, and that we so often never learned to live life on life's terms. We just as easily can have other symptoms (e.g., drug or sex addictions, eating disorders) of those same problems. And we can still be alcoholic.
They know that mental strength is not usually something you are born with naturally, but something you cultivate out of necessity.
I love this list!
Reflection on Trust
I trust that if I work [AA's 12] steps with my sponsor, come to a lot of meetings and listen, ask my Higher Power to keep me sober and relieve me of the bondage of self, be of service to other AAs and to my family, then I won't drink or drug today; and that if I meditate, eat healthily, and exercise daily, then I will have a measure of happiness in my life today; and that's regardless of the state of the world, the health of my family, and whether or not I'm gainfully employed.
Frostie the kid, who is just over a week old, was found in the wild cold, dehydrated and with swollen hind joints. He had contracted lice infestation which enters the body via the umbilical cord soon after birth. After being taken to Edgars Mission - a non-profit Farm Sanctuary just outside of Melbourne, Australia, he was given a new lease of life. A wheelchair, originally made for a pig called Leon Trotsky, was given to Frostie as the piglet had recovered.
Picture: KYLE BEHREND/EDGARS MISSION/ CATERS NEWS (via Pictures of the day: 26 May 2014 - Telegraph)
I was about to write a bit about my current struggle with depression when I saw this. Now I feel some gratitude. Thank you for posting invisibledisabilitychameleon.
My pain will teach me something I need to know, and it will have an end.
Touchstones, July 22
My pain is of anger and hopelessness, feeling there is nothing I can do, except to accept matters as they are right now. The hope is that there will be an end to this pain. The task is to navigate through this pain and to find what it is I need to know. For right now, what I can do is the next best right thing, which will help me get out of my head.
photos from tanzania’s ngorongoro conservation area by mitsuaki iwago
I am so grateful that conservation areas and sanctuaries exist to protect some of the Big Cats. But there are not enough to ensure their species' survival
The power of asking for help
It's been since June 11 that I've tumbled here. The one year anniversary of this blog, tumblr informed me, came and went. I've had two episodes of moderately heavy depression and suicidal thinking since the last post. I was in a three day rough patch at that time, and then a more angry and depressed period earlier this week. I really haven't wanted to post or to read others' posts. I don't know why today is different.
But I have a nice reminder this morning of the power of asking for help. It takes power to ask for help, and I get power when I ask for help.
I went for a swim this morning, which I do about once a week, 13 (50 yard) laps, just practicing my strokes and breathing, and I've gotten to the point of being able to do three consecutive laps. A master swim class was using all but one lane, so I wasn't sure whether I'd be able to swim, though it was due to finish in 30 minutes and free up all 6 lanes.
Without much thought I asked the staff what the master swim class was, and had a nice conversation with several staff explaining the range of free classes available to swimmers of different abilities. I would not have known about these and would have gone on doing my thing on my own had I not simply asked.
Rather, I learned about a class that fits my goals for improvement really well. I had no idea these free classes were available.
That's what I mean by "the power of asking for help" - left to my own devices I have little or no will to ask others for help. But by connecting with my Higher Power daily, asking for knowledge of HP's will me for me and the power to carry that out, I find myself asking for help without giving it a second thought. And from doing so I have been given the power of information that I can use for my own physical and mental fitness.
What's in it for me?
What’s in it for me? Do I only tell my wife I love her so that I can hear her say she loves me? So I can have physical intimacy with her? If she does not reciprocate that she loves me am I looking for an excuse to find love elsewhere? Am I afraid to love unconditionally without expectation of return? … Unless there is something in it for me? What will happen to me if I love unconditionally without expectation of return? “What’s in it for me?” - This bondage of self I ask my Higher Power to relieve me from every day without seeing just how much bondage I am in over this particular thing.
Today I see.
Recovery nostalgia
On this day June 8 in 2000, I wrote in my ‘Touchstones’ meditation book that I had 2,000 days of sobriety!
In making this trip last month I foresaw that I would revisit some memories and feelings that had a powerful role in ultimately hitting my bottom. I've reflected on this often since returning and believe I have drawn one lesson.
The people in my life with whom I may have had close ties and strong memories, but not deep and emotionally honest relationships like those I have had in the AA recovery community, remain more emotionally painful for me than each and all of the losses that have been part of my recovery experience. Far more people who have been part of my recovery life have died sober, or drunk, overdosed or by their own hand than have in my 'normal' life - family, school and work friends. But the losses and victories in my normal life - the deaths, the good times we've had that are now gone - often feel like open wounds. And the losses and victories of days gone by in my recovery life, I just feel grateful for. They have been essential to my survival. I have borne my soul with an honesty that I cannot replicate with my family as a matter of survival.
Does this make any sense?
World ending? Call Your Sponsor
World ending? Time to not take myself so seriously.
In music, in the sea, in a flower, in a leaf, in an act of kindness . . . I see what people call God in all these things.
Pablo Casals
This afternoon I returned to a local natural area with the dog - it's a favorite place for us. He can run free; and no matter when or how often I go I discover something new or see something for the first time. This time of year it has exploded in green, and is perhaps most beautiful. When I go here my heart seems to shed 10 pounds of worry. God's work is so amazingly evident.
Thanks
Saw Jack Johnson tonight. Really lifted my spirits.
My wife met me at the airport
Arriving home this morning after crossing 5 time zones over about 16 hours, my wife met me at the airport. I told her straight off that I miss her, I'm unhappy, and I'm lonely, that I still love her and that I want for us to work on our relationship. This was not the first time I've done some variation of this over the last year; once again she was noncommittal, but suggested we do need guidance to help us work on our marriage.
What's important now
What's important now is that I actively focus on doing the things that help me stay out of depression and that can even bring me back when I'm beginning to slip into it. I'm back in this nice hotel room; I've done my job here; I don't depart till tomorrow morning.
So I've put on some music. I'm telling myself that I've done well. These six days I've been away I've conducted myself with pono - that is with goodness, or rightly, and honoring my Au'makua - best or higher self.
And I shall look ahead to the next right things that I can do: attend to work I've missed; gather some small gifts for my family; take care of my right knee that's been slowing me down with some pain; process some of the learning I've been experiencing and the memories I've been revisiting.
If I do my part, my Higher Power can do for me what I cannot do for myself.
I made it! I’ve been up now 21 hours. Had a really tasty dinner, gelato and a walk on the beach. Eavesdropping it’s clear that there is a Lot of drinking that goes on around here. And I think, “Why?” Why would anyone want to miss a second of this beauty due to even the most slightly altered mood or mind?
