by PAL | Aug 1, 2023 | Someone In Recovery
Summer. 2011. It’s 110 degrees outside. The sun bakes the concrete courtyard where I sit, the radiation of unbearable warmth rising. I smoke cigarettes with my back leaned up against the wall as I sit on the ground in a spot of shade near the stairway. I don’t...
by PAL | Jun 1, 2023 | Someone In Recovery
I’m present. I’m home sick and have been up all night with a 7-month-old baby but I’m present. Some vitamin B and coffee combined with the exhaustion are creating an odd hyper awareness in me but it’s ok and I’m here for it. I sit with my son out back on the...
by PAL | May 1, 2023 | Someone In Recovery
When I was 15 years old, I had grand aspirations for what my life would look like. I was obsessed with music and playing the guitar and my dream was to be a songwriter who wrote hits and toured the world. I loved reading and writing. I’d get lost in...
by PAL | Apr 1, 2023 | Someone In Recovery
In 2012 I lived at my drug dealer’s apartment. Our arrangement consisted of me providing transportation in exchange for a blanket on the floor in the living room and the occasional free hit of heroin, meth or marijuana. When I was physically able, I delivered...
by PAL | Mar 1, 2023 | Someone In Recovery
November 17, 2012 16th Street and Glendale. Phoenix, Arizona I’m barely scraping by. I’ve left the halfway house again in my brazen denial of reality – my utter consumption with staying intoxicated fish-hooking me into another miserable situation. I’m in a...
by PAL | Feb 1, 2023 | Someone In Recovery
While I labored intently in my single-minded zeal to stay intoxicated, lost in my disease, so many important individuals were left in the dust picking up the pieces I’d so recklessly broken along my path. Lately, I’ve noticed myself reflecting on this more than...
