I just returned from a four day workshop on "detachment" that I offered at the Dan Anderson Renewal Center at Hazelden Foundation in Center City, MN.  What a powerful week end for me, exhausting in a good way.  And what an incredibly open, loving group were present for it.  You don't always have a group of twenty-five who can allow themselves to be as vulnerable as these men and women were.  There were tears, for sure; moments of confusion, angst over situations beyond one's control at home, lots of frustration and fear too about the primary question: "What if[...]

For decades I danced around the lives of others, generally as a way of seeking attention and approval.  When others failed to acknowledge me or if they criticized me, I was devastated, certain that I was soon to be rejected.  What a sorry mess my life was for more than three decades.  Alcohol relieved the angst up to a point but not forever.  Thank goodness.  As I have said in other blogs, revealing so much about myself may seem foolish to some who are reading this but I believe that sharing our vulnerabilities is what helps every one of us heal. My introd[...]

I just returned from a week end in New York City with three very special women I used to work with.  Although we had seen each other for dinner many times over the years, we had never made time to travel and spend those long very necessary hours just talking and laughing, about the old times and the experiences that our fresh to us now.  There have been job changes and serious health conditions; family deaths and children leaving home and then returning with grandchildren.  Among the four of us, much has changed but our love for one another has been strengthene[...]