Just Me

Before the year started, I wanted to learn 12 new things, one thing each month of the year. I always love learning new things (which is part of the reason why I devour the news every day!), and as part of this “new life” I am living (i.e., sober), I want to make an effort to continue to improve as a person and increase my skills as much as possible.   Unfortunately, I was not able to learn all 12 things that I planned to learn this year. Alas! Because of Covid restrictions, insufficient planning and lack of funds, I was just not able to get the last of the things that I wanted to learn down pat.   Here are the things that I DID manage to learn this year:   1. Cars (the basics, anyway) 2. Exercise and physical fitness 3. Running 4. Yoga 5. Tai Chi 6. Hiking 7. Tae Kwon Do   I should add that, in some cases, I used a book to learn about some of those things. I tried to put into practice what the books taught me, but without an expert – or someone who is more

  I recently finished reading the novel, The Shack by William P. Young. While I am aware that this book has had a profound impact on the Christian community, this story affected me in a different way. I am no longer a Christian; I decided I was done with religion after years of seeing so-called “Christians” judging others, hating on others, refusing to accept others and, contrary to what Jesus taught, not loving others because they were different. I saw way too much backlash, hate and bullying taking place against people in the LGBTQ+ community, as well as against Wiccans, witches, and other faiths. There was one particular person I knew who refused to stop people from bullying another person who was gay, simply because that person was gay and it went against her beliefs. I was horrified. Her refusal to do anything to stop the bullying meant she was okay with that person being bullied.   This was the face of Christianity that so-called Christians showed to me. So, yeah, I decide