By David Palmer Interventions are a valuable tool in helping alcoholics and other drug addicts get well. And they come in various sizes and shapes. In my own case, a psychiatrist I was seeing in Denver about my acute anxiety realized after a couple of sessions that I was an alcoholic and directed me to my nearest Alcoholics Anonymous meeting forthwith. He knew that our talks would come to nothing if I did not deal with the alcohol issue first, and he “intervened”. I went to my first AA … [Read more...]
Celebrating Recovery on St. Valentine’s Day
As St. Valentine's Day, an event that has been associated with love and reconciliation for centuries, approaches, it is appropriate to revisit that day in 1991. That was when John Baker took his wife Cheryl to dinner to begin making amends for the alcoholic behavior that nearly destroyed their marriage. Baker, an alcoholic who had been estranged from his wife, told her he had stopped drinking and wanted to help restore their marriage and be a part of her life if she would have him. She … [Read more...]
Remembering That Day of “Infamy”
I was 12 years old when my father, looking very grave, told us-my mother, sister and me-that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor on Oahu, one of the Hawaiian Islands. It was a picture perfect day in Summit, N.J., a charming commuter town 30 miles west of New York City. There was about a foot of snow that day, and we were in the backyard sleigh riding, taking turns on my Flexible Flyer, when my father came out to give us the news. The attack just before 8 a.m. that morning of December 7, … [Read more...]
In Autumn – a New Beginning
One late afternoon in October 1978, I found myself at a deserted outdoor restaurant in Boulder, Colorado with only the bartender for company. In the lengthening shadows of the Rocky Mountains, chilled by the wind, I stood with drink in hand suddenly overcome by a sense of loneliness and isolation. I watched the lights wink on in the little houses on the side of the slope and wished that I was living in one of them doing what normal people did—like mowing the lawn and cleaning the garage and … [Read more...]
A Grandfather’s Tale: Thankful for Turkey
On Building Relationships A grandfather’s Tale By David Palmer The late Dr. Conway Hunter used to sponsor an annual, four-day Thanksgiving retreat at St. Simons Island off the Georgia coast for people in recovery from substance addictions, mainly alcohol. In November of 1990, I joined a contingent from Little Rock at the retreat. I was about ten years sober and felt in need of a spiritual jolt. And I got one. It finally dawned on me at St. Simons that while I had quit drinking ten … [Read more...]
