Spanky and Alfalfa were hammered, and Darla is on that Coke again…. “Our Gang!”
The mother of my kids has moved to a new place and in the process had to offload all sorts of things as they are downsizing in terms of square footage.
And anytime you move after multiple years, you always encounter forgotten or misplaced items or even cherished mementos instead of just been gathering dust because they’re not a vital part of day-to-day activities.
My kids showed up a couple of days ago with the box full of stuff that apparently was from my late mother who passed away three years ago at the age of 94.
I won’t tell you everything in the box because there’s enough items in there for multiple blog posts because of the particular and random things that she held onto that unless she know the whole story really don’t make sense.
In this case, my dear Mother held onto my junior high and high school yearbooks with all of the signatures and all of the pimply faces inside.
Serious emotional and mental time machine, wild all the people and places that live in our minds. It was, now that I am off the Sauce, it was really a lot of fun as my kids would call out either teachers or kids kids names and I would just say the first thing that I remembered if I remembered them at all.
To be honest, however, this would not have been a fun game or exercise while I was drinking as it would’ve stirred up a lot of trauma and a lot of things that I was using alcohol to avoid thinking about.
Now EVERYTHING, no matter how traumatic, has the opportunity to teach and inform me of my past, so I can better understand my present here today and right now.
I do my best when I write to not embarrass anyone or divulge personal information however because there’s so many friends from Ann Arbor that I grew up with that ended up having different behavioral challenges, substance abuse, marital issues, etc. lots of times people think I’m talking about them or concerned that I’m divulging private information that shouldn’t be talked about.
The reality is if I worried too much about things like this, I would not be able to “squeeze the Puss out “that I need to do in order to heal and recover from a traumatic adolescence and teenage years.
This doesn’t change the fact though that it can sometimes result in uncomfortable conversations like I had the other day with an old friend called in with a Michigan Area Code….contacted me out of the blue because he thought I was referencing him in something I wrote here and one of my blogs.
To avoid threatening the Suffering(like my old friend that called me) or in other words, to avoid putting the Yogi in a yoga pose that they don’t want to do, I’m going to revert to a cast of characters that you might be familiar with….Our Gang and the Little Rascals.
My friends from Ann Arbor Elementary/Slauson/Pioneer…. I’m gonna give each of them a character name from the little rascals and I’m not gonna align them by appearance, skin color, or even gender, I’m going to get into the characteristics and the personalities and then match them up that way.
In other words, Buckwheat might be a white bread, Country Club kid from Barton Hills that liked to smile a lot.
I’m gonna keep everyone on their toes and only The GratiDude and my Cat, Henry, will know the true identity of each character.
I’m doing this because I love all these people and I want them to be healthy.
Let’s face it, it’s only the addicts, drunks, and demoralized….my old friends in denial, that are threatened by things that I write.
Too close to home.
So don’t read my shit.
Hard stop.
That’s the compromise, and I’m not joking a teeny-tiny bit.
Just to be blunt and keep it real.
This is part of my healing, and this is part of how I help others understand that it’s OK to process your past to deal with your trauma head on and to come out the other side being thankful for that experience.
As I like to remind myself and others, if we removed all of the most difficult experiences we have ever been through in our lives we wouldn’t even recognize ourselves. We would be some less flabby version of ourselves with none of the strength of survival that we carry with us in our hearts and minds today.
So you’re one of my old school, Homies and you wanna make a request for a character, sorry, it doesn’t work that way.
Eberwhite Elementary School, Ann Arbor, Michigan1976
The Day the Yearbook Arrived
You see you did your readings for your characters back in the 70s in the 80s and me and the gratitude have all of the audition material.
We will nail the casting.
This way, all the Ostriches out there can keep their heads in the ground, and not have to worry about what might be happening up here in the generous present moment of now.
That is unless they want help and they want to reconnect their self and begin the healing process then I believe that and just about everyone reading, this would be there to welcome them with open arms.
We would even dust dirt off the ostrich head and help them clean out their eyes and look around and join us in our Attitude of Gratitude.
EVERY DAY:
Love
and
Gratitude
https://grateful4.org/6-weeks-program/
https://www.instagram.com/GratiDude_abides
KevinACarpenter@gmail.com/941.894.8030 Text me your celly-cell so I can build my database please…..
Thank you sincerely.
The G.I.F.T. Today
Grateful: for the satisfaction when i review the tiny steps that got me to this incredible life I have co-created with the Great Spirt that guides and protects me. Thank you.
Intention-creative project execution and engagement encouragement
First-Charley PV
Things-kids schedule for month
REGISTER YOUR SPOT TODAY PLEASE PEEPS AND PLAYERS, GET BETTER…..NOW!
HERE: https://grateful4.org/6-weeks-program/
DOUBLE DONATION MODEL; ONE NOW, THE OTHER WEEK 6 BASED UPON RESULTS
Every day, every way, grateful.
KC
I am here to help, add somebody that needs a “check up from the neck up”
KevinACarpenter@gmail.com
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