Archive for May, 2009
26
May
Posted by Mark Schmitz in About Me, Life, Personal Growth, Purpose of Life, Relationships, Self Discovery, Spirituality. Tagged: About Me, Age is just a number, Aging, Best Birthday, Birthday, Birthday Party, Birthday traditions, Blogging, Childhood Memories, Getting Older, Lilacs, Seasonal Birthday Memories. Leave a Comment
Tuesday, May 26, 2009 is my 48th birthday. I don’t expect it to be any different than any other day; my friend Keith will pick me up in the morning as he does every Tuesday, and we will go to Joshua Tree. Joshua Tree is a program here in Phoenix, Arizona which provides food [...]
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25
May
Posted by Mark Schmitz in About Me, Addiction, Health, Life, Mental Health, Opinions, Personal Growth, Self Will, Self-improvement. Tagged: Asthma, Breathing, Cigarettes, I can't breathe, Non-smoker, Quit Smoking, Respiratory Problems, Smoker, Smoking, Smoking Cessation, Tobacco. Leave a Comment
“I quit smoking.” — Me
I’ve considered myself to be a smoker since the age of twelve. My cousin Randy and I would sneak cigarettes from our parents and smoke them as we walked to school each morning. Back then, cigarettes cost no more that seventy-five cents from the vending machine at the local bowling alley. [...]
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25
May
Posted by Mark Schmitz in About Me, Addiction, Life, Opinions, Personal Growth, Recovery, Relationships, Self Discovery, Spirituality. Tagged: F.E.A.R., Fear, Flexibility, Rigidity, Story of the Reed and the Oak, Strength, Stubborn, Stubborness, Tolerance. 1 Comment
There’s an old fable about the competition between the reed and the oak during a gale storm. As the wind howled, the oak boasted, while the reed said nothing. The wind became a tempest, and the reed bent down flexibly to the ground. The oak fell, uprooted.
Sometimes we seem strong but we are [...]
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24
May
Posted by Mark Schmitz in Addiction, Life, Mental Health, Opinions, Personal Growth, Relationships, Self Discovery, Self-improvement, Spirituality. Tagged: Authentic Self, Faith in Ourself, How Should You Feel, Inner Life, Inner Self, Inner voice, Inner-directed, Outer Directed, Seeking Approval From Others, To Know Real Peace. 1 Comment
I’m learning that when we lose faith in our feelings, we lose faith in ourselves and become outer-directed. That is, we look to the world to tell us how to feel and what to do. We seek approval and love from others so we can prove to ourselves that we are worthy. Paradoxically, to be [...]
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23
May
Posted by Mark Schmitz in About Me, Addiction, Creativity, Life, Personal Growth, Spirituality. Tagged: Addiction, Art, Artistic, Creative outlet, Creativity, Life, Life's Lessons, Personal Growth, Recovery. Leave a Comment
“It is the creative potential itself in human beings that is the image of God.” — Mary Daly
Within each of us is a creative person. Getting comfortable with our creativity often means letting go of tight, rigid thinking so that the spontaneous, artistic side of ourselves can emerge.
Whether or not we think of ourselves [...]
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23
May
Posted by Mark Schmitz in 12 Step Program, About Me, Addiction, Art, Chemical Dependency, Creativity, Drug Addiction, Life, Personal Growth, Recovery, Self Discovery, Spirituality. Tagged: 12 Step Program, Addiction, Art, Art by Christopher Eshenbaugh, Art Therapy, Artist, Chemical Dependency, Christopher Eshenbaugh, Creativity, Life, Life's Lessons, Mask of Domestic Violence, Personal Growth, Reading, Recovery, Self Discovery. 1 Comment
The Mask of Domestic Violence – By Artist, Christopher Eshenbaugh
“Thanks to art, instead of seeing one world (our own), we see it multiplied.” — Marcel Proust
I’ve been looking at the therapeutic nature of art to one’s recovery lately. In our active addiction, we tended to have a single, narrow view of ourselves and the world [...]
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23
May
Posted by Mark Schmitz in 12 Step Program, Addiction, Art, Chemical Dependency, Drug Addiction, Life, Opinions, Personal Growth, Recovery, Self Discovery, Self-improvement, Spirituality. Tagged: Addiction, Art, Art by Christopher Eshenbaugh, Blake, Change, Chemical Dependency, Creative Endeavor, Creative expression, Creativity, James Joyce, Life, Life's Lessons, New Patterns to Life, New Ways of Seeing the World, Personal Growth, Poe, Recovery, Van Gogh. Leave a Comment
The Mask of Mental Illness – By Christopher Dale Eshenbaugh
I can see that my new life will be full of the unknown, but that is what can make it exciting and creative.
Many great artists were neglected or even abused during their lifetime because their work was considered too provocative. Painters like Van Gogh, poets [...]
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22
May
Posted by Mark Schmitz in Life, Opinions, Personal Growth, Relationships, Spirituality. Tagged: Astrological chart, Astrological Sign, Astrological Sign Gemini, Astrology, Duality, Gemini, Gemini Behavior, Gemini personality traits, Gregarious, horoscope, Judgmental behavior, Life, Life's Lessons, Personal Growth, Twins, Zodiac. Leave a Comment
I am a Gemini. There was a time when I was ashamed to say that I’m a Gemini. People would begin to go off about how horrible their entire life experience has been with us Gems. Really. And then they’d hurl their judgments of me (cloaked as comparisons of course), by the time they were done, I felt like an inappropriate, over talkative, manipulative ass.
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20
May
Posted by Mark Schmitz in About Me, Life, Life's Lessons, Lyrics, Personal Growth, Relationships, Song Lyrics, Spirituality, Video Clip. Tagged: Broadway Musical, Change, Elphaba, For Good, For Good from Wicked, Forgiveness, Glinda, Good Witch of the North, Inspirational Lyrics, Kristen Chenoweth, L Frank Baum, People in your life, Wicked, Wicked Witch of the West, Wizard of Oz. Leave a Comment
I love the Broadway musical Wicked. For those readers unfamiliar with the story, it is based on the best-selling novel, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory McGuire which runs parallel to the classic novel by L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
Wicked tells the story of [...]
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19
May
Posted by Mark Schmitz in About Me, Life, Personal Growth, Relationships, Spirituality. Tagged: Defying Gravity, Elphaba, Glinda, Inspirational Lyrics, Relationships, Together We Are Unlimited, Wicked, Wicked Witch, Wicked Witch of the West, Wizard of Oz. 1 Comment
Sometimes when I blog, I may just share lyrics to a song which is special to me. This blog happens to contain the lyrics to “Defying Gravity” from the musical “Wicked”. Enjoy the video and the lyrics that follow.
Defying Gravity
GLINDA
(Spoken)
Elphaba – why couldn’t you have stayed calm for
once, [...]
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