Beaux H., Trusted Guide and Faithful Friend
Today, my current recovery sponsor, Beaux H., celebrates three years of continuous sobriety, and I would like to take a minute to put into words something about who Beaux is, and who he has become, to me. I met Beaux on a Zoom AA meeting in the spring of 2020, most meetings being moved to…
Mark Kunkel, Fellow Spiritual Pilgrim
I pursued, and earned, a master’s of arts in psychology from the University of West Georgia, a middle-of-the-road state college turned university with a well-known humanistic psychology program. Although, technically, I had been employed as an addictions counselor for a few years prior to enrolling at West Georgia, I feel as though my understanding of…
Andy Drinkard, Complicated and Tender Soul
Andy Drinkard was not the kind of man who is easy to figure out. He was, we might say, the polar opposite of the so-called basic person. He was complicated, many layered, and full of internal conflicts. And yet – precisely because of this, I think – he was also eminently relatable, exquisitely sympathetic, and…
John Roberts, Teacher and Friend
I first met John, I believe, as a student in the Foundations of Humanistic Psychology course which was required of all master’s students in the University of West Georgia’s psychology department. John was the instructor assigned to teach the course, though, in the true spirit of UWG’s humanistic psych program, it was a collaborative affair…
Mrs. Thren
My fourth grade teacher was a woman named Mrs. Thren. She actually has a first name, of course – Jane – but, back then, she was Mrs. Thren, and, in truth, she will always be “Mrs. Thren” to me. She was a good teacher, and a fine person, and I will always remember Mrs. Thren.…
John and Jane Doe
In graduate school, I would not infrequently hear my professors talk about their students, and/or their patients/clients, as their “teachers.” At the time, I wasn’t sure whether this was genuine, or, rather, a piece of rhetoric that passed as (false) humility. Now, close to ten years into my formal practice as a psychotherapist, I know:…
Kevin Goserud, Thinker and Tinkerer
Kevin and I have a friendship that is based in real candor and almost entirely uncensored mutual disclosure of our thoughts, feelings, and experiences. To say that this kind of relationship is rare is an understatement: I would go so far as to suggest that some people never develop a single relationship like this in…
Mom
Only one word is needed to describe this person, who has made as big of an impact on my life as any: Mom. The word is tiny, but the significance is broad and far-reaching. I am who I am in my life because of my mother, and I am immensely grateful to her. Mom is…
Herb R.
Herb R. is an interesting man with an interesting journey. He is also my friend, though we correspond only rarely these days, which has been the case since I left his town of Carrollton, GA, to return back north in 2015. But while our communication is occasional, it is certainly true that Herb has made…
Ralph M. Reeves, MD
I met Ralph in the summer of 2007, when I was working as a chaplain intern at Reading Hospital. Ralph had recently retired from his work as a psychiatrist at the hospital, but he possessed a passion for working with the chaplaincy department, as his life experience had led him to want to unite two…
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10th Leper Gratitude 