Loose Change: Spoken words from the firing lines...

We do recover. But there was something else that was said to me when I first started this journey:

“You’re gonna have to step over a lot of bodies on this road,” and, “Some of us have to die so others can live.”

The first one was true, I learned that early.

The second statement disgusted me when I heard it. Why would some have to die SO others can live?

When people started dying rapidly, I saw how the community changed.

I don’t think people are sacrificial lambs that NEED to die so other people can live, but that is a side-effect, for those who answer the call of the Reaper. This “call” is for all witnesses and those affected, and it has the power to stop time.

Death gets our attention. It shows us where we are NOT living right. It whips us into right action and refocuses us on what truly matters - LOVE - and shows us how we are neglecting the gifts of Life and Love, if we are willing to listen.

This full spoken word piece was written by me in a frenzy one summer in 2015… my small recovery community had just lost 6 people in a matter of weeks, and this was how I chose to channel that.

I recorded and shared it again last year… but now, coming up on the 14th sobriety anniversary, and given the bitter yet vital medicine we learn from death in its various forms… I am sharing it here now.

🙏 This is for everyone who knows what it is to be on the firing lines of addiction, violence, mental illness, ptsd, and death. 🙏

Also… WE DO RECOVER.

A lot of people die. A LOT. But a lot of us make full recoveries too. May we remember the ones who live the same way we remember the ones who have died, may we have renewed perspective whenever needed… ♥️