Autumn Leaf

In time, the autumn leaf will crumble to earth and create a new tomorrow, which may take centuries, and all that surrounds us will change into different versions of life.
In time, the landscapes will change piers
(and so will you)
In some ways, we are like an old piece of driftwood that floated across the ocean and washed upon shore.

The stories from our crazy days will fade and wash up someplace
(just like the driftwood)
Maybe we’ll Continue reading

From The Classroom: The cutting problem

Before I go on and explain or expose this to you, I want to first explain that this is what happened to me in my life. The thoughts and feelings I express are mine. I cannot say this is the same for everyone else or if others felt this same way, but I can say that throughout my years of recovery and while speaking with others who have been through similar struggles or acted out with similar behaviors, in several conversations, much of what I express was commonly relatable and understood. Therefore, I expose my history of cutting for others who Continue reading

From In The Classroom: Visions of Self

A few weeks back, I stood in front of a classroom and discussed the three different versions of self. I talked about the version we see, the version we want others to see, and the true versions of who we are. To put it simply, we are the perception of three different people. We are who we think we are. We are who we want to be. And we are who people see us as.
My experience has Continue reading

Fun with Fiction: Sessions From the Balcony

The Phone Call:

The phone rang at approximately 5:13am when her eyes opened and noticed the time on her alarm clock. First light had yet to show itself and the bedroom was dimly lit by a small soft white light that came from the hallway bathroom. Understanding the phone call was real and not a dream, she reached to stop the Continue reading

Lessons from Empowerment class

What lies beneath the lies?
We spent a lengthy time discussing the energy behind dishonesty in my last class. I asked a simple question with an obviously easy answer. “Why do people lie?”

In full disclosure, I chose to answer this question from my own personal standpoint. I have had more than my fair share of dishonesties in my life. In each of my dishonesties, the reason why I lied was to create an Continue reading

About Speaking in Schools

I look out at a roomful of young kids, bright-eyed, with their life still ahead of them; their dreams are this “Real thing” which has not been spoiled by age or outside opinion. Inside each and every one of them is a life just waiting to blossom. Ahead of them is a countless supply of tomorrows with only a limited supply of yesterdays behind them.
I see them. I see all of them look at me as I stand at the front of the classroom. I feel a pit in my heart. I feel a familiar sadness from my past. I feel an old feeling that comes from a time long ago when Continue reading

Letters From A Son: Christmas Eve

It is early morning, Christmas Eve, and I have been awake for a while now. I woke up in the middle of the night last night (again, of course) but this time was a little different from my usual bouts with insomnia. No, it wasn’t like that at all.
It wasn’t the usual kind of troublesome mid-sleep, wake up; I lay there in bed, my eyes close, only to open up again, and of course, I’m thinking too much about too many different things. Instead, I woke up and Continue reading

From Bedtime Stories for the Insomniac

Development

1)

I pulled on the coat-tails of an old memory this morning. It was a bad time in the young life of me. There I was, skinny and scrawny in a white tee-shirt that hung off my frame as if my body was a wire hanger. I was sweating from my underarms, pale-skinned (I swear looked more like greenish than anything) with deep Continue reading

It’s hardest when . .

It’s hardest when they are young and they see themselves a grown up, living a full-grown adult’s life, thinking they know everything, and believing this without any doubt; meanwhile, the truth is they have only been speaking in full complete sentences for a little more than a decade. Meanwhile, less than a decade ago, they watched cartoons (not that there’s anything wrong with that) and they believed in things like The Easter Bunny, Santa, and the tooth fairy. They know it all; meanwhile, they don’t see what we see. No, they see through the eyes of self-preservation.
It’s hardest when trying to work Continue reading