5th Newsletter February 2nd, 2024

Happy February, because Valentine’s Day is the 14th. I always think about hearts and love in this month. I think back to when I was little and I made Valentine’s for everyone in my class. It was such a fun time, and wasn’t filled with anxiety or feelings of if this person likes me or not, it was just about giving everyone a card that represented that you cared about that person. (even if it was one day). 

If life were that simple today…

I have been reflecting for the past 24 hours about how much life has changed in a very short period of time. Let’s face it I am only 55 and the world doesn’t look like the same place that I grew up in or that I lived in just 6 years ago. In some ways it is unrecognizable. 2 + 2 does not equal 4. 

In my humble opinion I think we are living in a darkness and a time of adversity. Love and light can conquer it, but we need to come together rather than tear each other apart….last I checked no one is perfect. 

In 1988 I was 20 years old, people drank and partied and loved one another, it was also the year that the Internet was born! 35 years later our lives look so different. Church was still a big part of people's lives, no one carried around a small computer (ie a cell phone) that tracked every move you made and no one really cared what someone was doing on their vacation or what they ate at each meal. It was a much simpler time in my opinion. 

Drugs were not in every home in America. People were not running to the doctor for this ailment and that bad feeling. But, today people live at CVS and Walgreens, picking up a prescription is like going to the grocery store today, it is a mandatory. And our society is getting sicker and sicker and we thought this was helping but I think it is only hurting. 

When I got sober 17 years ago there were some younger people in the rooms but today they are filled with young people and the young people that I am hearing are in such horrible places it is gut wrenching. 

Gen Z is watching their contemporaries and friends die at a rate that is inconceivable. 

These young kids are having to bury their friends! 

A person’s brain isn’t fully developed on average till the person is 25 years of age. These kids are dying younger! 

It is hard enough to watch a loved one that is elderly die but to have to watch a friend that is 19 die of a drug overdose is mind boggling. What do you do with those emotions? These young adults are having feelings of remorse, why them and not me syndrome and how are they coping? They aren’t! As adults we don’t deal with death well and we expect these kids to be able to handle it…Insanity! 

My daughter called this week to tell me that someone at her small school committed suicide! She explained to me that this person was very lonely! SOMETHING IS WRONG!!!!

How we have been coping as a society is not working! 

One that drinks and does drugs is trying to kill the pain. The pain that sadly doesn’t disappear for long…you chase the high hoping that agony can be kept at bay but numbing does not work!

What does work is love, kindness, light and openness. Finding a true friend and confidant is what works. Someone to actually listen to you, and not judge you. Self love works, FORGIVENESS works. Taking the time to breathe and know that this too shall pass works. 

We are all graced with life. Being a human being isn't easy. Life will have its highs and its lows, it isn’t stagnant. 

Embrace your life, all of it! It is yours to cherish! Feel all the good and the bad. But don’t let one feeling define who you are, because let's face it if you mix up all the good and bad feelings they make up your life, your journey. 

I have always said that I want to slide into those golden arches in the sky and say to God, “thank you, that was an amazing ride”. 

Love you! 

Have a happy, happy 

XOXO