Image credit: Photo by idlelight on Flickr Licensed under Creative Commons A few months ago, a friend of mine, who is a single mom, asked me if I'd be willing to help her out while she worked late, because she'd missed a few days taking care of her son when he was sick and now [...]
Posts from ‘February, 2009’
Second Step Haikus
Image credit: Photo by 10 Ninjas Steve on Flickr Licensed under Creative Commons Lost in the desert: chase the phantom oasis, a shimmering dream. Cracked dry lips, parched tongue are driven by fantasy toward the horizon. I don't know what's real, and when at last I collapse, I cry in despair. The way I've done [...]
Pick Up the Phone
Image credit: Photo by splorp on Flickr Licensed under Creative Commons I was struggling today with several issues that have been swimming around in my head lately: my relationship with anger and rage, the place of vulnerability in my recovery, the harsh and insidious voice of my inner critic, my past emotionally and verbally abusive [...]
False Talismans
Image credit: Photo by Alé on Flickr Licensed under Creative Commons I took myself out to lunch today. Nothing fancy, just a fast food place. I was appropriately decked out for the occasion in my classy mom gear: a battered old college sweatshirt. The man waiting on me looked, I thought, older than I am. [...]
Huh. I Guess You Never Know.
Image credit: Photo by nickwheeleroz on Flickr Licensed under Creative Commons Now rumor would have it that my son's autism translates into rigid, ritualistic behavior patterns. And you may have heard that he's afraid to try new things: from new play structures to new foods. But don't listen. Yesterday, his sister asked to go play [...]
Other People Have Higher Powers Too
Image credit: Photo by Tonyç on Flickr Licensed under Creative Commons My husband and I go out regularly without our children, but until recently we had never been away overnight. Difficulties with sleep are common among children with autism, and my son has only just (at age seven) settled into something like a reliable sleep [...]
Teaching Myself to Parent in Recovery
Image credit: Photo by Laura Burlton on Flickr Licensed under Creative Commons When my daughter was about a year old -- not yet able to talk or to walk across a room without plopping on her bottom -- I was out grocery shopping with her. By the end of the (too long) trip, she was [...]
Dry Codie
Image credit: Photo by Vu Bui on Flickr Licensed under Creative Commons Many years ago, I was in a relationship that was extremely dysfunctional and unhealthy for me; so much so that my marriage to a sex addict has always (even at its absolute worst) seemed to me to be healthy by comparison. In that [...]
Haikus for a Tired Mama
Kids come rushing in: "Mama, help!" "I want..." "I need..." Arrival on cue! What is it I do to guarantee the onslaught? It's simple: sit down. P.S. I didn't finish those haikus before the kids needed me.
Codependency First Step Haikus
Image credit: Photo by Vu Bui on Flickr Licensed under Creative Commons Wind lashes the trees. The water churns angry white. I can't let this be. Sacrifice a goat. Strike a deal with the unseen. Beg storms for respite. I'm too busy to board windows, batten hatches or leave the storm's path. Against all my [...]
