It has been just over a year since I found my youngest son nearly dead from an overdose - a year later, he lives on his own and has a job.  He still asks for help now and then, but after over a decade of hospitals, therapists, residential treatment, outpatient treatment, he now has the resources to find help if he needs it.  Letting him go - pushing him out to stand on his own two feet was one of the hardest decisions to follow through with.  I had been told to do so many times and it was only at the end of last year that I felt he'd survive - learn to flourish and be in charge of his own destiny.

I am grateful.

I have been too deeply involved in one freakin' crisis after another to even blog about it - how insane is that?  However, it's time to discuss some of this so my head doesn't explode.

First, let me say that I still have most of my sanity left although some days I wonder why I do. I have now been working for 40 years and have nothing material to show for it -- no savings, loads of debt and I haven't taken a vacation in eons.  I am pretty sure driving back and forth across country trying to "save" one of your kids from himself?

So, why am I still sane?  Because I am afflicted with a stubborn streak of optimism that prevents me from giving up and letting the various personal terrorists in my life win -- not going to happen.

In the Beginning

Although I'm not 'professionally trained' to handle crises, life hands us many opportunities to learn how and I'm no exception. The hardest part has been to manage personal challenges without losing my sense of humor and without losing sight of how the issues I was dealing with fit into the big picture of society, the economy, politics, etc.

As a divorced/single working parent, I didn't have a lot of time to reflect, only to get things done -- often feeling like Lucy and Ethel did working at the chocolate factory (overwhelmed and finding creative ways to cope!). Having survived 20+ years of living one crisis at a time, feeling lucky when there was only BIG crisis, I've learned a lot (the hard way most of the time) and hope that sharing some of that knowledge will be helpful to someone else out there who is struggling to meet life's challenges. You are not alone!