Category: Gratitude
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Gopher State XLVIII
“We expected to recapture some of the fun we’ve had in previous years, but as time has taught me, expectations are nothing more than premediated resentments.”
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Writers Write
“Yesterday, I joined a kickball league. What started as an innocent conversation with some friends, snowballed into a series of events, some of which I still don’t fully understand, which resulted in me showing up to a field thirty miles from my house to practice with a group of people I had never met before.”
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Santa Claus Versus Shang-Chi
The lie of unmanageability is that I can’t reach my goals because of time constraints or some other variable. My lower self has been prioritizing needs, then wants, then goals. In an artificial hierarchy constructed by my own feelings of inadequacy, I’ve willingly put my goals beneath my current reality instead of using goals to…
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Checking In…
“Consistency is contrary to nature, contrary to life. The only completely consistent people are dead.” – Aldous Huxley
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Hello Darkness, My Old Friend
“The general conclusion of my childhood experiments were incredibly useful and translated into adulthood; what I once had and then lost may be painful but with time, whatever adaptations I have to make will become my new normal.”
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The Spanish-Speaking Afghan Cook
“To avoid any negative attention, the cook from Afghanistan learned a few words in Spanish and pretended to be Mexican. He never actually told anyone he was Mexican but never corrected anyone either. Because of his thick accent, he remained as quiet as possible. He relied on the chaos and background noise of the kitchen…
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Red Cup
“As my sobriety attempts ebbed and flowed, becoming almost as predictable as the seasons, I met other people, who, like me, were trying to get and remain sober. I made it a habit to judge those I met on the likelihood on whether or not they would stay sober. Did they “have what it takes”…
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Walking on the Ceiling
This isn’t to say that I didn’t have a happy childhood, just that the happiness was often hard earned. At an early age, I learned that I was responsible for myself and discovered that there were lots of way to escape my reality through television, drawing, and of course, walking on the ceiling.
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Eighteen Reflections on What I’ve Learned in Eighteen Years of Sobriety
Life will go on with, or without me. Whenever tragedy strikes, my energy is better spent thinking of others. Just because it feels like the world has stopped, doesn’t mean it has. Alcoholism, drug addiction, and trauma are all diseases of perception. All three work to kill its host by convincing them they aren’t afflicted.…
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Ice Cream Heaven
“The ice cream is always flowing, and the conversation is always interesting in my version of heaven.”