Community
I am for you.
We are for you.
You be for you
And, once you have decided to be for YOU, the path ahead should be clear. Let us help you with your journey and your eventual freedom.
We care!
Nancy
Amen friend!!! xo
I understand. I have been called "abrasive" sometimes. What I think I am is direct. I think it's all relative to how fragile or not someone may be feeling? Even when I'm fragile, I prefer directness. I would rather not beat around the bush or have anyone beat around the bush with me to protect my feelings. We all love different. Some love soft and some love tough, but LOVE is why we do what we do. In my opinion.
I'm in the process of writing the blog I intend to put out on my 10 year quit anniversary in a couple of weeks. The sentiments you've expressed here in such a beautiful way. are being ingested, digested and will be added to mine.
For me - I sometimes lose my non-judgmental 'take' and get angry and frustrated at those to whom we've given the tools again and again but they just refuse to employ them. When you truly understand the consequences of this addiction, the cost physically, along with all the rest - one sometimes comes out in a more "direct" "abrupt" and tough loving way than certain people don't "appreciate" shall I say. lol
You know what? We care so much sometimes, that's just the way it comes out of our emotional pores. I've made more than one mistake in my support here. I hope I continue to learn through each failure. And gain through each success. But as Dale says:
I am for you.
We are for you.
YOU be for you
For when YOU be for YOU - THAT's when you'll beat this bugger.
RIGHT ON! Great blog! Great comments! Thanks!
I Won't Quit on my Quit!
Sometimes we all need a little tough love, emphasis on love!
I love you just the way you are Dale!
New folks sometimes feel bombed with what they take as criticism and sometimes the long termers feel bombarded with negativity about their comments. I clearly remember shying away when I first got this wave of negative reaction to some honest truth I posted. Dale helped me decide that I need to stick to the truth and in the end the truth will set all of us free.
Well, there's certainly a difference between being prick and being assertive. I certainly don't believe that you need to offer me reasons for what you do, nor anyone else. I think you discovered the same thing that I have.
Addicts will do anything to avoid the reality that to start the journey of being a non smoker is when we DON'T PICK IT UP and ACCEPT THAT WE NEED HELP. The recovery starts when they show up and we have the rest of our lives to figure out the details. Much of that process seems to be beneficial to work on in NML.
Tough love, idk? I certainly think that few are helped by being coddled. Take for expample the story of a man having his wife send him to the frontier way up north to dry him up from booze and then an Eskimo shows up with a bottle of booze. You can't hide from it! People smoke.
The stone cold facts of how to sustain recovery need to be heard as fast as possible and I'm not convinced that sugar coating it helps.
Great blog.
Beautiful blog, Dale, so well said. I think that when we are newbies, and we were ALL newbies, we are so raw that things are not always taken as they are meant. I think people who keep failing and trying again are the MOST raw and it's really hard to know what to say to help.
You do a really good job.
Good blog my friend. Comments made with love in the heart should be taken the same way. Sometimes tough love is the only way to help.
True-short,sweet and to the point.
Ain't nothin wrong with a lil tough love!