Sunday, September 29, 2013

The Society of the Second Chance.... 2.0


There has been a lot of things that have happened in the last week that I feel that I have to talk about. I was just thinking about this as I was talking to a very good friend of mine.... I have evolved and so should this blog. My recovery is my life.... but it has brought me so much more now. I want to share that with the world and I think that sometimes I forget that and let fear just take over everything that I do. So here we go...The Society of the Second Chance 2.0.

Above is my very latest shot. I have not even put it on my photography site yet. So you are really the first people to see it. I am a big fan of the over saturation of the colors because it emphasizes my favorite parts of my City... the night and the lights.

This last month has been one of the hardest and most personally fulfilling months that I have ever had in my life. I lost a relationship but I did not lose a friend and that is the first time that has ever happened to me. Usually I am the one that cuts the other person off and just walks on hoping that I do not run into that person for the next year or so..... but this one was different and I am so glad to still have that person in my life..

Usually the month after a relationship ending for me are what I call "Throwaway Months".... because I just go into a place where I will do anything to make myself happy and feel better for that month. Usually what that means is just spending a lot of money on myself and hoping that it will make things better. The month of September was something of that for me... but I went back to what worked for me after the end of my last relationship... and that was concentrating on the health of my mind and body.

I started to work with my trainer again... something that i had stopped doing over the past couple of months....  here is a link to his site.  His name is Tim and he is a bad ass.. yes a bad ass in that he is a martial arts instructor but more so he is a really great person with great energy and that is why I was drawn to him... Peace of Mind SF

I also started doing something else that has had a profound impact on my life in just the last week.... I started going to yoga sessions at Yoga to the People in Berkeley and San Francisco. I have been told by people in recovery and by people that I love and respect that I would flourish with yoga as part of my spiritual practice.... and they were right.  I worked through the fear and just did it and it has changed me. I knew that it would it was just a matter of me walking through it. Once I worked past the fact that I really didn't give a shit about what people thought of me and what i looked like.. I was good to go.

I am getting way to old to care what others think about me... and I think that this break up has really solidified that in me.

Yoga to the People is really great because I do not get the feeling in there that anyone is judging me or that I should be doing something different. Every teacher that I have had over the past week really makes it a point to make sure that everyone feels comfortable in whatever they are doing. No matter what level of experience anyone has... they just want to make sure that everyone is safe.

Check this video out from Yoga to the People... they turned off embedding... so you have to go to YouTube to watch it.



I have also been back in contact with someone who means the world to me. She is someone who i first me while I was in treatment. We meet as she was coming in... and I had about 3 days of sobriety. So glad that we have gotten back into each others lives. We never really went anywhere I just think that it took time and circumstances for us to get back in touch. Thanks to her for lighting a fire underneath me to get back at this blog... something that i have been thinking of for the past couple of weeks.

Well... there you have it. That has been what I have thinking about over the past week. In the next couple of days I will post about A Day in the Life of me right now..... I think that it would be interesting and be pretty good therapy for me too.

Monday, September 9, 2013

Cry Me A River

I hate being an adult sometimes. Sometimes I just want things to go the way that I want them to go. I want people to act the way that I want them to act. 

I guess I am just sore lately because of all of the things that have been going on with me lately... I know that I have no control over those things.. And that is a beautiful thing. 

Sometimes I have to make adult decisions... Or others have to make those decisions for their own good and they effect me. I have to respect the wishes of these people.. But I don't have to like them.  

I know that these things are happening and that they are for my own good. But damn it... It sucks. 

Friday, September 6, 2013

Good Place



Today has been one of those days that I can't explain. I really have no words for.. but I am going to try and put something together.

I woke up this morning on the wrong side of the bed. I was just feeling that everything was going wrong. My head hurt and I felt that my heart was not in the right place in my body. I knew what I had to do... I had to say a prayer and see how the day would play itself out.

I posted about my day on Facebook.. hoping to get some sympathy I guess. Sometimes I think that is what I need.... is just a little acknolodgement. I seek these things from other people....

I wrote another blog post... .on another blog that I write..  www.beaconhouse.org/blog and I started thinking about the Big Book and when it gives the example of your daily routine. What you should do in the morning and what you should do when you turn in.

I really don't have a daily routine.. i just kind of let everything go and just let the chips fall as they may. Things are beyond my control.. but I feel that I don't have any idea what is going to happen next. I don't have a lot of skills when it comes to knowing what is going to happen in my day. I know when I have to work and I know when I have to go to school.

I went to Marin and had some coffee and wrote. That is something that I have been trying to do everyday now.. is write about what I feel. A lot like I do when I am writing here.. but it is different. It is more like a journal... and I don't know what it is but I really enjoy the act of physically writing.... and I don't remember it ever being like that before.

When I got home from that... I was in this amazing place. I really couldnt desc
ribe it except for the fact that everything felt right.

I have been reading this book..... called the Untethered Soul. I have only read the first chapter so far but it really made me think..... about the inner dialog that goes on in my head and how that dialog is not me. Disconnecting myself from the dialog is something that I have never thought of before... That realization was something that took me to a really positive place...

I had never even thought of disconnecting myself from that voice.

Things are happening.. exactly the way that they are supposed to be happening and its a beautiful thing.

Sunday, September 1, 2013

Life Happens

Hello everyone...

Just thought that I should say hello to everyone and check in. Well.. there have been somethings happening.

Namely.. my most recent relationship has just ended. Much like the way that the last one did... but not as dramatic and much less messy. There was a whole lot more understanding and talking after this one.. and I understand where she is coming from.

What I want to talk about this time is the way that I am feeling right now. How my eyes and mind feel right at this moment....

My eyes are open and my emotions are raw... I am feeling everything right now. My eyes are wide open and my skin is raw. Much like it was when I first got sober. I could feel everything with a magnitude and depth that I had never felt before.

I know that things will be alright... everything will be alright.

The way that I love is that I put my heart out there.. and I make myself vulnerable. I will not change the way that I love....

I think that it is time for a gratitude list.


  1. Grateful for my recovery and the life that has come from it. 
  2. For the way that I choose to love 
  3. Knowing that I can love and that I am worthy of love. 
  4. My amazing Higher Power... who has shown me that i am full of love. 
  5. My friends.. who are right there for me. Even though they know the routine and this has happened before


Life happens... and I am a fan of it. Even though sometimes.. it really sucks.