Do you know the difference between major surgery and minor surgery? Major surgery is any surgery you must have; minor surgery is anyone else’s surgery. Mel Brooks said, “Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die.” It is human nature to think of our own…
You must do three things to reach your goals: dream big, start small, and think long. You have to fly the kite a little higher, a little longer each day. Over time, the ceiling becomes the floor. Emil Zatopek, the great Olympian, said, “Step by step, a man will come to the fifth floor.” Zatopek…
In 1959, Burt Pugach met Linda Riss, and it was love at first sight. But when Linda discovered that Burt was already married and had children, she ended the relationship. In retaliation, Burt paid three assailants to toss lye in Linda’s face, which nearly blinded her for life. Burt served 14 years in prison for…
On this day in history, 35 years ago, the great John Elway took his Denver Broncos to the Super Bowl, only to lose to the Washington Redskins, 42-10. For many, such a blowout would have been devastating. But another January 31 would eventually come around, 11 years later, when Elway would redeem himself, leading the…
A friend suffered a recent relapse. “What do I do now?” he asked me. My simple answer was, “Do the next right thing.” Where we get off the rails in recovery is by making things too complicated. We don’t relapse because we don’t know what to do, but because we don’t do what we know. …
Every so often, it is wise to review our five primary triggers for acting out. You can remember them with the acronym B.L.A.S.T. We tend to be at greatest risk for relapse when we are: Bored Lonely Angry Stressed Tired Don’t let your triggers stop you. The temptations and roadblocks to recovery can seem overwhelming.…
It happened on this date in 1986. I remember it well. On January 28, 1986, the U.S. space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff from Florida, killing all seven aboard, including a school teacher who had been selected as the first American civilian to travel in space. That was a devastating day for America,…
Underwater somersaulting is not yet an official Olympic sport. But that never stopped Marta Fernandez Perez from setting a world record in 2001, when she completed 28 backward somersaults underwater – on one breath. How did Marta come to be the queen of underwater somersaults? I’m not sure, but I’m going to guess that she…
I love these words, from Louis Armstrong’s famous song, What a Wonderful World. “I hear babies cry, I watch them grow, They’ll learn much more, Than I’ll ever know. And I think to myself, What a wonderful world.” The psalmist wrote, “What a wildly wonderful world, God! You made it all, with wisdom at your…
What role do rewards play in recovery? Dr. John F. Kelly addresses this in his article, Recovery from Addiction. He writes, “It is now well known that the repetition of rewarding behaviors produces changes in brain function and structure that facilitate habits and, for some, sustained compulsivity and addiction.” Dr. Kelly is saying that one…