Playing Dead5/8/2008
by Ames S.
amess@sober24.comThe idea of playing dead has always appealed to me. It’s a well-known
defense mechanism in nature: when attacked by a grizzly, the prevailing
wisdom suggests you curl up in a ball and play dead.
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Tech Support5/1/2008
by Ames S.
amess@sober24.com
After the eighth call to tech support, I realized I was in the grip of
a powerful obsession. My wife had tried to clue me in a number of hours
earlier, but I wasn’t able to hear it.
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The Sounds of Silence4/24/2008
by Ames S.
amess@sober24.com
Last week in New York City’s Union Square Park, home to any number of
strange happenings over the years, an event took place that captured my
imagination. It was called a silent rave, the latest advance in hip
happenings.
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Benches4/17/2008
amess@sober24.com
I’ve been writing this blog once a week for the past year.
And I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. Of course, it hasn’t all been easy. There
have been plenty of times when nothing was coming – the proverbial blank page.
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Keep Walking4/10/2008
by Ames S.
amess@sober24.com
Some people jog,
some people bike. Some drive everywhere. Me, I’m a walker.
It’s a trait I’ve
developed over the years. I wasn’t always a walker. In my drinking days I was
more like a sprinter: making a mad dash after whatever it was I thought I
wanted, then collapsing in exhaustion at the finish line. The idea of a
marathon was beyond me and the sprints I was able to achieve were getting
shorter every time.
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Florida4/2/2008
by Ames S.
amess@sober24.com
I recently spent
some time down in Florida
where if the temperature falls below 75 degrees people start referring to the
weather as "freezing." Even the pool at my mother-in-law's condo has
procedures in place to roll a tarp out over the water when the temperature
drops below 70.
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Mirror, mirror3/26/2008
by Ames S.
amess@sober24.com
Weekends were always rough for me when I first got sober.
All that free time and nothing to do. It was like looking out over a frozen
lake – bare, sparse, with no distractions, nothing to break the icy wind
blowing across the frozen surface of sobriety.
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‘What’d He Say?’3/20/2008
by Ames S.
amess@sober24.com
I was reminded at a meeting the other night about the two-part communications plan that lies at the heart of my sobriety. It’s highlighted in AA’s Fifth Step, “Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.” The step describes the need alcoholics have to quit living by themselves with those “tormenting ghosts of yesterday,” and outlines a methodology to surmount the “mysterious barrier” that has always seemed to separate them from others.
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