Creating in this garden of life
family, alcoholism, sexual abuse, chronic illness
Pruning Back the Dysfunction When my mother died 20 some years ago, my children and I planted a variegated maple tree in the front yard, in her memory. Occasionally a non-variegated branch emerges from the trunk. If not pruned away, more and more of the tree will lose its variegation. If left unattended, the … Read more
She’s an alcoholic. This is dreadfully humiliating since she once professed to be a substance abuse counselor. She’d gone into the field with the intent of fixing her alcoholically dysfunctional family of origin, curing her mother and brother of their alcoholism, looking for the answers and tools necessary to get her own unstable psyche on … Read more
As I understand it, her mother’s father died a painful death of esophageal cancer when she was two. Being a sensitive child, she felt for his pain and tried to soothe him with the white blanket which brought her so much comfort, patting him gently and singing softly as she covered his lap. Of course, … Read more