Recovery Coach Training

So a few weeks ago I was in the first part of the ICAADA training to be a Peer Recovery Coach. I wanted to tell you about some of the highlights, especially yesterday's walk through the hall of shame. It felt like a viewing you might go to after someone dies. I have pictures to add, but they will have to be posted later.
The topic yesterday was "Stigma". We broke up into 3 groups and each group made a list on large pieces of newsprint paper of the words that come to mind when you think about:
Alcoholics
Drug Addicts
Mentally Ill
Recovery.
Each group made a pretty extensive list.
Then we hung the lists up together in the meeting room across the hall from the classroom. We were instructed to walk through the room, single-file, silently.
The entire class walked through the room in about 15 minutes' time, then returned to our seats, still silently, considering the things we'd just read.
I will add the posters when I am able.
I think I can safely say that most of us were in tears after this reminder of who we had been, for so long. Even with so much time, so many years, between myself and the days of drinking and drugging, it brought back many painful memories.
I 'd believed the lies for so long, and run so hard after the (non-existent) rewards smoke and mirrors of the party-girl/addicts' lifestyle.In that room, with 2 dozen of our peers, we confronted our collective demons.

 Now, before I continue, I feel that I should tell you that not ALL of these adjectives described me, completely. But, yes; most did.
We discussed what had just happened. We talked about the stigmas of addiction, alcoholism, and of mental illness, all of which were represented in our group. Most of us saw our former selves on more than one of the papers.
I can't recall what my peers said, but the feelings were all the same: guilt, shame, sorrow, self-loathing, to name a few.
What I shared afterward, was that it felt a lot like when I did my first 5th Step. Writing the inventory wasn't so hard, but letting someone else see the labels I'd carried around, was terrifying. I was deeply afraid that all the things I'd thought about myself, even before ever picking up, would be confirmed as true
.But what I said then, was that I'm a little bit less of that person, every day that I stay clean. I never want to be her, again.
I will be eternally grateful for the Trainers and my friends who went on that disturbing walk through the "Wall of Pain" with me. We learned, that week, how to better use our pains to help the addict/alcoholics that God will faithfully our paths.

I'd like to have more security. How about you?

"Do not stop thinking of life as an adventure. You have no security unless you can live bravely, excitingly, imaginatively, unless you can choose a challenge instead of a competence."
 -Eleanor Roosevelt

Nominated for a Liebster! Woot Woot!!

”What is a Liebster award?”
You might ask.
 In short, it is an award that bloggers pass to one another to announce to the world the blogs they think are wonderful. When a blog is nominated for a Liebster there are some rules they are supposed to follow.
First, they must thank the blogger who nominated them.
Then they must answer 10 questions which the nominating blogger has asked.
Then they must nominate other blogs they feel are worthy.
They must then write 10 questions for their nominees to answer and must notify their nominees that they have been nominated.

Here are the questions I received:

1. What do you think about sheep?
I like them very much. I want to emulate them in a spiritual sense. But not in an intellectual sense.

2. Identify your most unloved possession.  A Mac laptop

How did you acquire this thing?* I got in online.

3. Why did you think you needed it?*Thought I'd be able to master it and get out from under the heavily-virused (among other downfalls) Windows Empire.

4. How did it disappoint you?* Not for an untreated ADD mind to successfully accomplish. At that moment.

5. What is your favorite gardening tool? Fresh dirt. :)

6. What got you started blogging? I've always known I had a story to tell, and when I discovered the blogosphere, it was a natural step for me. I've been published in a hardcopy magazine once upon a time, but I like this because it's so much more personal.

7. What is the best way to build community? I wish I knew. Having give-aways seems to work for some folks.

8. When was the last time you grew something and produced a yield? last summer I was finally successful at tending to a little porch-garden. The tomatoes we got from that were by far the tastiest things EVER.

9. Did you save seeds from your yield? No. I was given them as little baby plants...:( Now I wonder if I should have? )

10. The last time you entered the wilderness, what brought you there?** My soul needs to be in the wilderness. I feel only half alive while in the concrete jungle, even as small as our current resident city is. Bliss is found in the company of birds, bugs (not including spiders, of course) and the occasional wood nymph. It's easier for me to touch the Almighty Spirit when not surrounded by so much "civilization" chaos.


I look forward to reading all of your responses.  I'm glad you are part of the blogging community, especially my little community. Blog on!


*This question was shamelessly copied out of “The Pocket Muse: Endless Inspiration” by Monica Wood, Copyright 2006 **Adapted from a question in “The Pocket Muse” ibid

As painfully far apart as my opportunities to blog have been lately, I'll have to do this in increments.

Today, I answer the Q's.

 Next time I'll send out my nominations. :)

Thanks eversomuch, to my wonderful friend, Barb, Matron and HNIC of
Groundwell Farm.

www.GroundwellFarm.com