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Profound thoughts about some things

By CATHY BROWNFIELD Family Recovery Center Sometimes, do you sit with your cuppa, staring into but not seeing your surroundings, and ask yourself profound questions like, “Does everyone on Spaceship Earth think we are living in a test tube?” Or, “Can anyone else remember a time when they consciously thought, ‘I do not want to be a statistic?’ Or, “Do people know what it feels like to not be good enough, achieve well enough, or just be enough?” The human condition “is all of the characteristics and key events that compose the essentials of human existence, including ...

Check homes of seniors for common safety hazards

The holiday season is a good time to be sure that older loves ones living at home are safe and the home is free from common safety hazards. Many people who live far away from aging family members find that when they visit for the holidays, they see a much different living environment than what they might have imagined when talking to their relative on the phone. Not only do they find that the loved one’s physical or mental abilities have deteriorated more than they expected, but these changes may also have led to any number of safety hazards in the home, as well. Falls are among ...

People struggling with diseases of despair among us

Despair. The very word brings visions of sadness and sorrow to empathetic people who can feel deeply the emotions of others. Despair is “the complete loss or absence of hope.” When you think of the most despairing moments in your life, does it give you any insight about others who struggle in a sea of depression and hopelessness? From where do you draw on the well of hope? How do any of us find our way out of the darkness and into the light? Recently I was given a “final report,” “Appalachian Diseases of Despair,” which was prepared for the Appalachian Regional Commission ...

Getting enough sleep?

Tonight, we turn the clocks back an hour, as if we all grumble enough about not feeling rested when our feet hit the floor in the morning and we begin another day. How many of us will take several days to get our internal clocks reset? Several years ago my husband and I wrapped up a visit with friends and family in North Carolina. We decided to make the 9-1/2-hour drive home overnight to avoid the heavy daytime traffic. We did not rest before we set out for home. We wanted every possible minute with the people we were leaving behind. We both felt wide awake, ready to turn north on ...

We said we would never forget: Will we?

For the first time in 20 years, we will celebrate Veterans Day in relative peace. On November 11, 1918, Ralph Lindsey wrote from his hospital bed in France “Armistice signed at 11 o’clock. Grand celebration all over France. War is at last over and I am still alive!” Later in life if you asked him about the scars on his chest he would simply respond with a shrug and say, “I zigged when I should have zagged.” Ralph was my great-grandfather, and now, nearly 103 years after he wrote those words, our nation once again finds ourselves celebrating the contributions of our veterans ...

Help: Families Anonymous reaches out with 3 C’s

You never conceived of the notion that addiction could happen in your family, or that any of your friends would become dependent on harmful substances, or become alcoholic. Now you realize it could happen to anyone. You are a firm believer in tackling problems head-on as soon as you are aware of them, but this situation is not so easy to manage. In fact, you aren’t sure you can control any of it, no matter how hard you try. Confused, hurt, lost … what are you going to do? Addiction affects everyone around the person with the substance misuse problem. How are you going to protect ...