I am a first wave baby boomer from a small town in northern New York. I graduated from college and married in June 1969. The War in Vietnam weighed heavily on me as our ""love child"" was born a couple of months after the August Woodstock Music Festival. With my draft board after me, I started the pressure of a new career in a leading-edge computer industry. The Woodstock Nation spawned a culture that swept me into a lifestyle of a grass smoking, long hair, and characteristics that identified me as a hippie in a white-collar job. My alcoholism and addiction can not be understated as they influenced my life unmeasurably. Often I felt alone on a dark path very few have traveled. Simultaneously, I quickly advanced upward through the computer technology industry earning management promotions, awards, and guest speaker engagements, an opposite path that even fewer have traveled. Forty years later, I retired as an IT Project Manager after a successful career that included global travel to places like Singapore, China, and Nice, France. But it was the only life I'd ever known, so the peace away from stressful work and life in the fast lane led me to a quiet life of writing. My biggest achievements in life are my two children as they have growing careers, loving families, and are solid citizens. Of course, the love from my grandchildren reminds me how lucky I have been in my crazy life.
Quotes from The Courage to Surrender because she is confronting a demon, which will consume all her strength, as she is coming to grips with who she really is, versus who she wishes she was I believe that shame is abuse against yourself while guilt is abuse toward one or more people paranoia is my savior as it keeps me getting high in privacy balance is everything if getting sober was the best thing I ever did for myself, then drinking again would certainly be the worst thing I ever did to myself that feeling of knowing someone more than anyone always has your back. I suspect many define love as safety in mirrors brought back flashes of the shame I caused myself and the guilt I felt for the pain I caused others who tried to love me