When I hear about members of my group “checking out” my heart sinks and literally aches. I can not imagine life being so painful that it wouldn’t be worth living. It is a huge wakeup call that we have a deadly disease.

I don’t know enough about you to know if you are a friend of Bill W. but I am thankful that I have a design for living. It makes it so much easier. MOST OF THE TIME *wink*

Thanks for your honesty. I am looking forward to reading some more of your blog.

Besides that, You’re a TEXAS GIRL!

Hang in there!

Loss simply sucks. I was lucky enough to not be in the club until this past February. I can’t even imagine dealing with what I’m dealing with if I had been an alcoholic too. So, wow to you for being functional.

It’s hard to continue to let the feeelings out because they are so strong and so persistent. But we must allow them to be. We must look at our feelings as separate from us, and allow them what they need to be what they are. Acceptance is really damn difficult, but at the same time totally simple.

Life is to learn and experience, so embrace the mistakes. I’m very impressed with your openness and your clarity of expression. Continue to give yourself credit and try to avoid beating yourself up about goofs. It’s how we grow.

Peace.

Nobody has it all figured out (me included); we’re all doing the best we can.

That counts for a lot, and pretending otherwise can lead to all kinds of problems.

Just keep what’s important to you closeby, and the rest will take shape as it will. Sending you a big hug Holly!

@adam: Our dreams are the ones that are most important, I’m realizing. No matter how small or how big compared to other people’s, they are ours and the grandness of them comes when we go for them.

Just a twist on the perspective- running your own business is no small feat. Just because a coffee shop would be deemed a “small business” doesn’t mean that it takes a “small business owner” to run it. Just the contrary- it takes a big person to run a successful business of any size- to start from scratch, to maintain all the important aspects, to be profitable, to live your dream. There are plenty of people out there who are too scared to start living theirs. You’ve already proven that you can look yourself in the eye and come to terms- being a recovering alcoholic is no small thing. Many people loose everything because of alcohol and still aren’t ready to face themselves. I have lived my whole life with an alcoholic father who over time has lost everything- his business, his family, his spouse.

This entry really spoke to me for a couple of reasons. I am 27 and have been trying to figure out my big dream, all the while being careful not to duplicate any of the mistakes I witnessed as I grew up. I recently went into business with a friend of mine and we are really trying to make a go at our web start up (thecollectionspace.com). But trying to achieve balance between my day job, my start up, my husband, my house, my blog….ahhh! You get the picture. I can’t even imagine what it would be like to have a child too. What I do know is that I have to work toward this goal and it’s not a small goal. It’s a life goal – I don’t think they get any bigger than this.

Thank you for the candor and the honesty.

I think the point you make is extremely important, and I really wonder how many of us are chasing the dream we think we should be chasing rather than the one we actually want to be chasing.

Thanks again.