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From Ukraine With Love
By Diane Schachter
 It is a result of coincidence that I am writing this story about a unique family. I met Cathy while chatting at a local dog park this past spring. She spontaneously shared that she and her husband Martin had adopted five children from Ukraine. “Five kids, that’s a lot of kids,” I remember saying. But it was not until the ride home that it dawned on me that their story could possibly be a story for Thrive In Life. Too late, I had no phone number or knowledge as to where she lived. She was not present during any subsequent visits to the park. Now, here is where the coincidence part comes in. In autumn, I was taking the bus to the airport and just before I was about to dismount, I overheard a man saying to the person beside him that he and his wife had adopted five children from Ukraine. My antennae went up and I quickly asked if his wife’s name was Cathy, and could I have their phone number. He looked at me quizzically and provided the information on a small borrowed piece of paper as we exited the bus. Read more
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Lottie Dot
By Joanne Wannan
 Patricia Belt looks at a photograph of herself alongside her five-year-old Dalmatian, Lottie Dot, and can’t help but chuckle. Her blue eyes sparkle in the picture and she is obviously proud. But several wisps of hair have escaped from her upswept hairdo. They flutter at odd angles, some across her face, others straight up into the air. “Oh my, look at that! I’m such a mess!” Patricia exclaims. “I get so caught up with Lottie Dot, I never have time to think about myself, much less stop and comb my hair.”
It’s certainly no wonder. Lottie Dot is a dog with a multitude of talents and a chockablock schedule of places to go and people to see. She even has her own resumé, and it is truly an impressive one. Lottie has volunteered in 19 different facilities and received five different awards for her work. As for her interests, they include doing tricks, playing Frisbee, giving and receiving hugs, and capturing everyone’s heart.
What Lottie Dot’s resumé doesn’t tell you is that when she was only eight weeks old she was abandoned and almost froze to death in the snow. Read more
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Expert Series: Too Late For Your Dream?
By Noelle Sterne
Do you feel stuck in your job, your activities, your life?
Do you condemn yourself about what you could have, should have done differently?
Do you yearn for more, even if you don’t know what it is?
Do you suspect you’ve got something to give, even if you can’t identify it?
Or do you know what it is but haven’t been able to let it out?
Have you pushed your secret yearnings into the back of your life, like old photos in the sock drawer?
Like many people, maybe you live for the weekends or retirement. Maybe you promise yourself that then—finally—you’ll do what you really want to. Too often, these envisioned golden times never materialize. Why? Read more
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Rebirth: After A Home Invasion
By Chris Shin
 One day when I was about six years old, my uncle, my mother’s younger brother, was murdered and my brother, three years older, attacked with a knife in our house by the same perpetrator. We were living in Korea at the time; my father was in Vermont alone, pursuing a master’s degree. Miraculously, my mother and I were spared as we had left the house in the morning. Earlier that morning, my mother had gone over to a friend’s in the neighbourhood. I wanted to go with her but recall being afraid to ask for fear of being scolded. After she left, I mustered the courage to ask her if I could come over too. She said, “Of course you can” with such warmth and welcome, I wondered why I was afraid to ask.
Later that day, while my mother and I were protected in a neighbour’s home, a deranged man rang our house, pretending to be a salesperson, entered, demanded money from my uncle, stabbed him in the back and then attacked my brother. By a miracle, my brother managed to defend himself, escape and find us. I recall a lot of commotion in the neighbourhood, then standing out on the street and seeing my brother run towards us, crying and screaming, covered in blood. Everything else is a blur. Read more
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Expert Series: Ten Steps To Personal Transformation
By Amara Rose
 The quest to discover and live our truth is the Hero’s Journey, a sacred pilgrimage home to ourselves. It’s the high road — and a rigorous one. We may try to camouflage our fear of the unknown with bravado, workaholism, or apathy. There’s another way: following the path of the heart. How do we find it? With a transformational road map. I invite you to join me on a mission to remember and reclaim your life purpose.
Step One: Give Yourself Permission to be Passionate
Our resistance is the Refusal of the Call. Change whispers in our ear, and we attempt a high-tech tune-out: call waiting, call forwarding, on hold, voicemail…
We fight change because acceding to it feels like stepping off a cliff into an abyss. Out of touch with our vital, intuitive nature, we panic and crawl safely back into the shopping center mentality. We resign ourselves to buying the leopard print pants because we’re afraid to be the leopard.
How do we answer this call to reclaim our connection to what’s true for us? We start by giving ourselves permission to be passionate, to dream beyond our self-imposed boundaries. Read more
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Grandma’s Best Friend
By Laurie Damer as told to Eric Damer
 Dogs may be man’s best friend, but I think a cat was my Grandma’s best friend. She had had several beloved companion pets during her life, but her last little cat was special. She provided unconditional affection and emotional support to Grandma in the last years of her life, when she needed it the most, and she even called for help when Grandma could not. When Grandma passed on, this cat then helped sustain me and my parents when we needed it the most.
Perhaps this last cat was so special because of the circumstance in which she came into Grandma’s life. Read more
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Dear Support Person
By Johnny Mackay
 It was all unexpected. Sure, life wasn’t grand but you know it was pretty good, I thought. In retrospect it seems like the changes took place overnight though I am not sure that is true either. My best friend and lover of 5 years decided to take up relations with another man. This was enough to force me to explore my own personal difficulties, shortcomings and relative commitment issues. I discovered that I loved her more than I loved life, more than I loved myself. Unfortunately, my new found passion for a life of solid relations with her and her alone, fell on deaf ears and I was told it was too late.
More than anything the ‘weight’ of the hole inside me was incapacitating, the darkness was unbearable, the pain relatively inescapable. Read more
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Ganesh
By Nayanna Chakrbarty
 It was a glorious day. Maneuvering the car every morning through the rush-hour traffic was a frustrating routine for many, but I enjoyed it. There were drivers who kept changing lanes and tried to nose in at the first gap between two cars. I gave way to such stressed commuters and used the time to eat muffins and catch up on the chart-topping music.
The morning sun glimmered, peeking through the lofty buildings. The rays danced on the reflective exterior  of the large towers and bounced its radiance on my rear view mirror. Quickly, I adjusted the direction of the glare, and the light now added a sparkle to my gilded locket. It was a pendant of Lord Ganesh. He is the elephant-headed deity of the Hindus – the destroyer of obstacles and an embodiment of wisdom and bliss. I clasped the pendant in my fist and thought what had compelled me to wear it always. Read more
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Ailynne
By John Edward Casteele
 It’s a moment like no other.
Seeing your child for the first time on an ultrasound is a major event in any expectant parent’s life; you can actually see that little living piece of you, knowing that he or she is real. Unfortunately, not every child shown on an ultrasound is actually all right. My girlfriend and I had to learn this the hard way.
It was a beautiful day, sunny and warm. Everything that you could possibly ask for in early spring. It was the day that we were scheduled for our first ultrasound, and we were both nervous and excited. The image of my child came up on the monitor and I was blown away… until the woman running the machine told us that something was wrong. She wasn’t picking up a heartbeat, and the baby’s heart should have started beating a few weeks ago. The image on the monitor that my world had briefly revolved around tore my world apart. Read more
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Cooking With Love
By T. Wayne Waters
 It’s a little past 8:00 on a Wednesday morning and 82-year-old twin sisters, Helen Ashe and Ellen Turner, are in the kitchen cracking eggs into wide-mouth wooden bowls. Brewing coffee infuses the air with an earthy aroma. Ellen gets a handheld electric mixer, plugs it in, and dips its shiny beaters into the yellow egg yolks in the bowl, a soft whirring sound signaling the start of scrambled eggs. Helen, meanwhile, turns her attention from the eggs to white rounds of biscuit dough she begins to lay out on a large metal tray.
The breakfast Helen and Ellen are fixing isn’t for them. It’s for the dozens of needy Knoxville folks who come to this special kitchen on the east side of the city–the Love Kitchen–twice a week, for a free meal cooked with care by the sisters and their volunteer staff. And for delivery to the hundreds of people in need who have no way to get to Love Kitchen. And for the hundreds more who come by and pick up much-needed emergency food bags; for, as the sisters like to say, the hungry, the homeless, the helpless, the hopeless, and the homebound. Helen and Ellen have been doing it for 25 years. Read more
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Making It Through A Sad Day: PTSD
By Josie Sanders
 November Fifth. The date approaches again. Every year, like the first frost, it appears and passes. I have measured the years – and my progress through them – by this mid-autumn number on the calendar. As a person with PTSD, or post traumatic stress disorder, I find that the date on which the worst trauma in my life occurred is for me a day permanently etched in my subconscious.
No, I never served in a war zone. My PTSD is the result of what I jokingly call “domestic combat.” I am a five foot tall, one hundred pound person who was beat on for years. There were days when I thought that surely I would be killed. The most traumatic day of my life was not any of those events, however, but the day a judge set free and rewarded the person who hurt me. That may sound strange, but the effects of PTSD rarely make sense. Read more
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Thanks Little Orphan Squirrels For Making Me Whole
By Tammy Mackey
 My amazing journey began on April 4, 2004 at 7:55am. It was a day that I will remember forever. I awoke to a grey drizzly day, and the first item on my agenda was to place sunflower seeds on the railing for our squirrel friends who frequented our property daily for special treats. I enjoy seeing the wildlife come to our yard for a handout to help them along, especially when food is scarce. As I walked along the second storey deck, I always checked the yard below. I saw a lifeless grey squirrel at the bottom of our large maple tree. I immediately yelled to my husband Kevin to bring this squirrel inside. I realized that she was an adult lactating female which meant that there were babies somewhere out there with no mom. I had to find those babies. Read more
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A Piece Of Bread
By Evelyn Carlson
 When I was in my late teens, living in Indiana Harbor, a section of East Chicago, Indiana, most of the downtown businesses were owned by Jews. There was a Jewish jewelry store, furniture store, produce market, bakery, and clothing store. I worked at the bakery; the owners, Mr. and Mrs. B, were a German-Jewish couple, and many of our daily customers were Jewish. I knew, of course, about WWII, but it seemed like ancient history to me. This was in the mid- to late 1960s, a good twenty years since the war had ended, and twenty years sounded like a lifetime to my teenaged ears. In my terms, it was a lifetime.
Now, in my sixties, I know just how short twenty years really are, and it makes me realize that many of those European Jews I knew back then were probably refugees from the horrors of Germany, Poland, Austria, and the rest of the countries being “cleansed” by the Nazis. Even the ones who were not new to the U.S.—who were not refugees from the war itself—undoubtedly had friends and relatives who were. They probably had lost parents, siblings, aunts and uncles, cousins. They probably shared their Sabbath meals with people who had numbers tattooed on their forearms—tattoos that the rest of us never knew about, thanks to long sleeves, shawls, and silence. Read more
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A Transformative Moment In Sweden
By Diana Carr
 When my son, Ryan, went to Sweden in 1998 as an exchange student for his senior year in high school, he fell in love with the country. So much so, that he moved back there a few months after returning home with the other AFS students. He got permanent residence, then his citizenship, and now calls Sweden home sweet home.
I’ve gone there nine times, and I understand why my son wants to live there. Old World charm, cobbled streets, thousand-year-old marvels of architecture, outdoor cafes where people linger for hours, and ancient traditions like lighting bonfires on May 1 to keep the witches away.
But as charming as all this is, I have always found the people to be distant and unfriendly. They seem to pull into themselves, not talking to anyone they don’t know or making eye contact with them, or lending a helping hand if need be. So I had gotten into my head, an image of a people who were even colder than their climate. But that all changed one day in October of 2010, when I went to visit my son and his new baby. Read more
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My Dear Watson
By Arlene Poma
 I hate to see people cry. Inmates and wards do not cry. They stuff their emotions, and that makes it even worse. I was a prison guard in California and if my inmates and wards had told me how they felt instead of acting out, there would have been some hope for them. In life, only cowards pretend not to feel. These people had suffered abuse all of their lives. All I had to do is open their files and read. Unfortunately, their stories were all the same.
At that time, I also knew about hiding feelings. I knew about a very personal kind of pain. I knew about keeping secrets and feeling alone. For years I had slept with my eyes opened while staying with my first husband. In two fits of rage spaced years apart, he had blacked out and tried to kill me. Read more
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Y Yoga Movie
By Michelle Morgan
 On 13th September 2001, film-maker Arthur Klein received an email from a friend of a friend, who had escaped the collapse of World Trade Center Tower One, and had decided to put his feelings into words. The email was poignant, heart-felt and amazing, and after forwarding it onto some friends, Arthur left his desk in the middle of the day, and walked out into the Santa Monica sun.
“I left the office in my street clothing and went to a 1:30pm yoga class around the corner from work”, remembers Arthur. “It seemed like a far better idea to regain a sense of peace and wellbeing, instead of going to the mall and shop or go on vacation as the American leadership advised. The teacher was Ashley Turner and her words were magic… I went to that class every day for many months after that…”
Walking into the yoga class that day, literally changed not only Arthur’s life but his career too. Read more
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Quotes That Help You Make It Through Today: Addicted To Words
By Keith Needham
 Hi, I am a recovering addict and alcoholic who has also suffered with depression, anxiety and OCD. I enjoy reading self-help books and articles about recovery. These writings give me hope and I wish to do the same for others. I feel that one quote can touch your heart as much as a whole book. I have compiled an article with quotes to inspire one to achieve greatness and maximize their potential.
KEITH’S MOTTO:
Once you begin to believe in yourself, others will begin to believe in you.
Once you place a high value on yourself, others will value you as well.
Your dreams and goals become a reality to the extent that you pour yourself into them.
Create your own belief system and feel the power of the words “I can” and “I will.”
Change your thoughts and you will literally transform your life and the world.
Everyone who has achieved greatness or fulfillment in life started out with a dream . . . an unlimited power to create lies within you.
There is always a way to make victory out of adversity, so long as you keep focused on answers and solutions.
To get to where you want to go, it’s important to understand where you’ve been. But don’t let what happen yesterday affect your positive outlook today or your hopes for the future.
The means create the ends – and the ends will be great if the means is love.
****** Read more
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Credit Card Angel
By Maggie Airncliffe
 The city was sweltering under a heat wave that just wouldn’t let up. Before 10 a.m. on the fourth day, the temperature was already nudging 30C. The prospect of another blistering day on the inner city streets was making me cranky. All I wanted was a shady spot on my little balcony, a good book, and a bottomless jug of iced tea.
At the time, I was unofficial ‘street mom’ to a group of kids trying to survive on the margins. Somehow they had adopted me when, on a whim, I’d stopped to offer them a basket of peaches that I’d picked up at the farmer’s market down the block. The fruit disappeared in seconds, but the impression they made on me lingered. The next week, I’d baked up a double batch of cookies, and gone back. Within weeks, I was spending most of my free time with them.
They’d come to accept my presence, true, but gaining their confidence was another matter altogether. Read more
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An Interview With Olivia Newton John
By Michelle Morgan
 From clean-cut singer of ‘Country Roads’ to leotard-wearing disco diva in ‘Physical’, Olivia Newton John has had a career that’s spanned nearly five decades. She is loved by everyone from school children to grandmas and yet still remains as down-to-earth as she ever was. Here Olivia talks about yoga, life, and her trek along the Great Wall of China….
*******
Say the words Olivia Newton John and most of us will automatically think of her most famous and successful role – that of Sandy in the hit movie ‘Grease’. But while ‘Grease’ was – and still is – a worldwide phenomenon, there is so much more to Olivia Newton John than dancing with John Travolta. Read more
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Twitter Saved My Life
By Salvatore Stefanile
 I’m not really much of a Twitter guy and rarely use it to ramble random life musings. I mainly use Twitter to follow Dan Harmon, Kurt Sutter, Norm Macdonald and pretty much every sports Twitter feed imaginable.
I never imagined I’d stick with Twitter for long. Figured I’d just sign up, check it out and delete my account eventually.
Was I ever wrong.
On April 15 of 2010, Twitter helped save my life.
One of the most prolific writers of today’s generation is Deadspin writer Drew Magary. I don’t know where he gets the time to write for all the publications he does, not to mention write a book, too. I give him credit for that. He was one of the first people I followed on Twitter.
He kept complaining how he needed to lose 50 pounds and instead of just bitching about it to faceless internet followers, he came up with a plan: announce to the world how much he weighed and keep people on Twitter informed of his progress.
He dubbed his plan the #twitterpublichumiliationdiet. Read more
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John Volken’s Welcome Home Program: A Second Chance For Addicts
By Emily Rose
 I always thought faith was the ability to believe in something that cannot be proven, some intangible element woven into our lives like threads we can sense, but never see.
As I grew older my belief in faith was questioned, as is often the case for people during difficult times. It has only been recently that I learned there is much more to faith than finding the answers to questions that are not based on evidence.
Real faith takes courage and trust. Often, it requires the helping hands of others to provide you with faith when your own supply is running low. And, as I learned during an evening spent with John Volken, real faith takes determination, and the desire to succeed. Read more
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Expert Series: Learning To Live My Light
By Amara Rose
 One of the hallmarks of any spiritual journey is that at some point, you will be asked to surrender who you think you are. The Call seldom comes in an obvious form. For me, the invitation to reawaken to my true essence, to reclaim the sacred feminine within myself, wore a brilliant disguise: debilitating arm pain. I was being asked to lay down my arms, to relinquish all the roles I’d been taught that had enabled me to arm myself against knowing who I am, in order to embrace something I couldn’t outwardly touch.
It was a colossal summons. And I wasn’t willing to answer — at least, not without putting the caller on hold a few times, letting it go to voicemail, or pretending I’d erased the message.
I lost the use of my arms for over a year at the start of 1993. The pain had been building for some time but, stoked on my burgeoning marketing communications business, piano lessons, and a ninety-miles-an-hour lifestyle that spelled “freedom” from the drudgery of nine-to-five, I ignored the warning signs. I was too busy; business was too good. Read more
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Snowflakes
By Joanne Lovering
 Snowflakes came into our lives unexpectedly. The day before Snowflake’s birth, my little boy said to me, “Bobalink is going to have some babies.” Bobalink is our female tabby cat. At the time, she was actually our 7-month old tabby kitten. We had not spayed her yet because my friend Jane had only recently rescued her from a neighbour’s garage. I had not noticed her swelling tummy. I contradicted my 10-year-old son at first, but on closer look my “no” turned to “maybe.” The next day my “maybe” turned to a “well lookie there.” Three precious lumps appeared in her box. Snowflakes was one of them, so named because the white markings on the back of his mostly black body looked like snowflakes. Kind of.
Unfortunately, Snowflakes’ mother did not favour him. He had a few good weeks of nursing alongside his sister (the third kitten did not live long) and then suddenly, his mother was done with him. One day she grabbed him by the top of his head and tossed him out of the box. His sister was still welcome to snuggle and feed, but not Snowflakes. So, Snowflakes grew up fast. And strong. And independent. Read more
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The Day My Life Was Saved
By Patrick P. Stafford
 Nothing tastes as bad as the Indian Ocean. Not turpentine. Not rotten eggs. Not sulphur. And certainly not soap, cod-liver oil or mud! Especially not when you are in the middle of it, swallowing and choking on heaps of it, and it is mercilessly drowning you. The Indian Ocean.
And that’s where I was, although not really in the middle of it, but only a few miles out from shore, off the coast of Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1974. Thrashing wildly to breathe and stay afloat and fighting desperately for my life. And slowly, inexorably…drowning in the beautiful, sunlit waves of an inhospitable Indian Ocean. Read more
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Independent Women: Is It Us?
By Acamea Deadwiler
 I was recently seeing a guy whom I had made plans to meet for our third date. I decided to catch the train 30 minutes away to Chicago in order to avoid the notorious traffic. In discussing our “plan” we spoke of the time I would need him to have me back at the train station in order to return home, when he said, “That’s if you go back home tonight.” I replied jokingly, but dead serious, “Oh, I’m coming back home tonight.” His response was a snide, “You independent women.”
Now, I am a well-educated 31-year-old with no kids, a successful career, a very nice place of dwelling, and a luxury vehicle. I am, by all accounts, every bit of an independent woman. But the way he said it… He just made it sound so dirty, so stigmatized. He said “independent women” as if there were something wrong with it. As if, it was something to be ashamed of. That was the first time I’d heard being an independent woman spoken of in such a condescending manner, and it really made me think. It made me wonder if being independent has become an undesirable characteristic in the eyes of men. Read more
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« go back — keep looking » |
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Mike
My wife is an alcoholic she drinks liquor from the time she gets up until the the liquor store closes.im at the crossroa...
April
I have been married to my alcoholic husband for 11 years but we have been together for the last 19 years. We met at a ve...
Tina
I have been married for 22 years. Both my husband and I were casual drinkers. As the years went by we began drinking m...
Amy Weisenburger
What a beautiful message!! My fur-babies, soulmates gave my life tremendous purpose and meaning. Their paw print...
Frank Sterle Jr.
Whenever I observe stress in the facial expression of my mother, a typical senior, I also observe how that stress drains...
Kim
This was an excellent blog. I have been with my alcoholic husband for 15 years. I felt like I was losing my mind with th...
Alice
Helping someone with this issue is hard. And even more if you love him. I know that very well. We struggled with it for ...
Union Alarm
The best way is to leave such a person as it is not worth making your life miserable with such a person. I know this as ...
Nancy Flora
I think what you mean is a non-drinking member of an alcoholic family. Alcoholism is a family disease. Just as your husb...
Amanda
The family is waking up Sunday AM and my alcoholic husband again makes another nasty comment to me. The things he has sa...
Angel
I learned how to detach from my drunk husband! Than my mother passed away. All gloves were off after that. My son gradua...
Lorraine
Married thirty seven and a half years to an alcoholic. But he is a good person. And he does good deeds for everyone neig...
jw
I have been with my husband twenty one years. We have three children together, ages 5,7, and 9. He is a functioning alco...
Richard Berman
A emotional story well written with bright eye ups and sad eye downs. A story I could relate to. My grandparents would...
Gina
Love this. Just what I needed to read. Thank you for your courage to share this....
Tired
I am struggling with detaching, but still trying. I have been with my other half off and on for 5 years. The offs were...
Debra Grossman
Thank you for sharing this beautiful story. It nourishes my soul to learn of such special friendships. We humans must ...
Jack russell
Really enjoyed reading the website. I have also have a website about this great dog....
Thank God for your blog. After 37 years of being married to an alcoholic,I've finally reached my breaking point. Emotion...
Thanx 4 da truth...
Sandra
I am from USA, i am 36 years old, i want to gladly give My testimony of how a spell caster dr.mac@yahoo. com brought bac...
g
Thank you for your words. As I navigate through marriage with children (11, 5, 3) and I am a stay at home mom, the idea ...
Catherine Ellen Pettway
My husband and I married in 1988. He occasionally drank beer but not everyday. He came from a long history of alcoholics...
Nic
Thank you Mike for your honesty and vulnerability. It helps to feel a connection with someone who understands the enduri...
Robert Goldsmith
Thank you for sharing that very intimate experience and your story. I'm married to an alcoholic and am having severe pro...
MANDI
Is this group still going? I love my husband and I knew what I was getting into when I married him. I knew he like to dr...
Kelly
Dear Keith, I hope you are at peace now. You are missed by many....
Delilah Campos
Dear LaVora, Thank you so much for sharing this intimate experience. I am deeply touched and encouraged by your experie...
Mary Ellen Bennett
Thank you so much. I am married to an alcoholic and I have watched him go through rehabilitation and relapse many times....
Tracy
Thank you for sharing your story with me Ivor. I'm so glad you had a loving supportive Aunt to guide you out from beneat...
Daniel Fontana
I know those kids,especially Snezana.Please send me their contact information....
Neyhaaa
I can't thank you enough for sharing this. Yet, thank you....
Amy
My daughter is five and her dad is an alcoholic. I know we need to leave. We both own our house and I can't afford a law...
CPC
I think this is among the such a lot important info for me. And i'm happy studying your article. However want to statem...
online festival
Every year, people in India find different ways to celebrate the same festival, and perhaps this adds new dimension to...
Karol
Listening to all the mother's on here is overwhelming for me. I think about what all of you are going through and I can ...
Vicki Osheka
This is my second marriage and I came from a non drinking family. Didn't realize what I was getting into when I married...
Elle
Wel written article. My husband is walking around totally beligerant. Where he ends up making messes, he has snowballed ...
Maren
Thank you for this! 3rd day on Cipralex and a glimmer of hope....
I 'gave in' recently. I am more hopeful than ever that things will improve for me after reading this article. It is insp...
LindaJane Riley
I apologize to everyone who has commented. I didn't know this story was still active. I would like to invite all of ...
Rahulbh28
Dear Members, Please help me. . . I'm sharing my painful moments which my brother and my family members are undergoing ...
rene
Yes i too lived the nightmare for 45 yrs..when in my marriage the last. 10 yrs my alcoholic lived in the same house and ...
Grace
I typed in Google search, overcoming childhood loneliness because I am paying attention to some habits that I have been ...
Casadina
I am so thankful that I found this website. I am like others on here and my alcoholic is passed out snoring again. This ...
Grateful
I cannot express how much I appreciate your story. I have been with my alcoholic for 11 years and I do not even know my...
Vic
I stumbled upon this beautifully written article because I just "gave in" today. I just picked up my perscription of cir...
Carol
I have recently begun to admit that my husband is an alcoholic. My heart is broken... I am pissed... I have so many emot...
TJ
Thank you for this article. You are the first person who seems to understand why I am still married to an alcoholic. I...
sariah
I wept as I read your story. I am currently learning to detach as well after 20 years of marriage to an alcoholic. Leavi...
LaVora
Good luck, N. My experience may not be yours. However, I deeply believe that happiness is our birthright. You deserve th...
nk
Lavora, I am exactly here in my marriage - trying to turn it around. Rgds, N...
Suzanne
Hi Martin and Cathy. Watched your documentary. You are a wonderful family. Everyone has their struggles, no one is exemp...
admin
Thank you for letting us know. The link is now set to the their new WEB page. We have our dog from them....
Linda Jane Riley
About a year ago I was forced to take a step back from all things related to alcoholism. My husband, Riley, was not drin...
SHerry
Your link to the rescue adoption site is for sale with no other info on the dogs....
Karen Rago
I think that Jesse is the most adorable jack Russell terrier dog I love watching his videos to...
Marleen
Thank you for sharing your story! That's real inspirating!...
Julie
Its 4:50am here. I can hear him snoring in the nursery. I brought the baby to bed with me.. He only snores when he drink...
ld
I thought I was suffering alone. The advice and comments make me feel better and gives me the strength to go on. Keep th...
Sam
Hi Mike, Very poignant, "There are no grown-ups. We are all children in adult garments" is right on the mark. Sufferi...
TJ
Thank You!!! Like "judy" commented above my mind was racing and I felt out of control... My life seemed to be falling a...
Karunakaran
It's very nice....
judy
Thanks for ur writings... it really help my mind to calm down.... where can i go to talk with alot of nonalcoholics??? N...
Tanya Sousa
We certainly do have to change the way we respond, don't we Paul? I'm encouraged though. I do see it happening -- althou...
Paul Trainer
Thank you, Tanya, this is all so true. As someone who adores starlings too, I know that it is only when you take the tim...
Cathy
In reading I see how difficult it is to be married to an alcoholic husband for 30 years and have now discovered that if ...
carrir
You took the words right out of my mouth. Xoxo...
ceri
What an amazing story of love between step son and step father...
Caney Texas
Hello! I've been reading your site for some time now and finally got the bravery to go ahead and give you a shout out fr...
julie
what a wonderful article, she described me to a tee , it was nice to put words to the feelings , I am new to cipralex bu...
michele
I am hurting so badly right now, it is taking all the strength and coping ability I have just to get through the day! O...
denise morini
PLEASE understand that I do not feel redeemed......still...........getting Lexi DID NOT make up for what I did to Jack, ...
Carleen Quesenberry
Denise- It is perplexing that you would write a "feel good" story after you abandoned a dog due to your failure to trai...
Jon
While I love the article, I caution those reading the post by "finally AM, me." I was in a relationship for 12 years to...
Wendy Noer
I felt like I was there, good story Melodee, keep writing. Let me know when you finish another one....
thank you...
Sandi
This is great, Mel! Congratulations! I hope to see more of your writings - especially the novel you're working on......
Katie
My name is Katie. I'm 40. I have only visited your website, haven't purchased your book yet. I've been diagnosed bi-...
Kaylee
Your story helped convince me to start retaking my cipralex! Thank you!...
gautam khanal
Love actually does not have any boundary of Cast,Religion,Profile,Species,Class etc........
Nayanna Chakrbarty
Dear Kalpana, Thank you for your kind wishes. I do agree with you, when you think you are all alone that's when He ma...
Kalpana
Dear Nayanna, It' such a pleasure reading your experiences with Ganapthi (as I call him). He is so close to my heart ...
Haley
Made my day we have no reason to complain bout anything...
Melissa
Sorry typo , thank you again ......
Melissa
Thank you , LindaJane; I will consider joining. Thank you against for your response .. Be well Melissa...
Linda J Riley
UPDATE -- Since I wrote this story, I have created several support groups: Two on Facebook and one on an independent sit...
Melissa
For 20 years that had been my life! This last time was so bad , he attacked me then choked his 19 year old twin daughter...
Steve Sumii
Joe, What a beautiful story. I visualized the whole story. The ending where you walk with your dad was especially moving...
JW
The story now the subject of a documentary aired on Knowledge Network. Video can be seen online at: http://knowled...
http://tinyurl.com/kovalane39421
I really would like to book mark this blog, “Turning Trash Into Beauty – Kat Nicotera’s Unique Art Therapy | Thri...
joybells
wow. i am going through the same journey! thanks for helping me & assisting me with that journey!...
Noelle Sterne
Fangfang-- You have been blessed with a husband and parents who understand that nothing is wasted. And you have learn...
Fangfang
Wow ... what a strong and passionate article!! Really?? Nothing is wasted?? I am feeling like I have wasted my life for...
Pushpa Rawat
sooo lovely and feel of very true friendship forever...
Tanya Sousa
Hi Diane! I'm so glad you enjoyed it. I was so blessed to have her in my life AND to have the parents I had. Also, gr...
Joyce
Billie, I found your story very interesting and well-written. Some people would have been judgemental about the conditio...
Diane
Shiri, your article is very interesting and brought tears to my eyes. I have been a dog parent/companion to many wonder...
Diane Schachter
Tanya, I so enjoyed reading the story of your dog sister. I love how you describe your adventures and relationship with...
Acamea
Thank you James. :-)...