So we're launching a daily, short (no more than 15 minutes and often quite a bit less) Facebook livestream focused on one topic around our story--our experience of Dr Marry's fall into addiction and our shared journey to sobriety. Our plan is to do them at 8:30am starting today.
Dr. Marry and Me
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Keep your keys close
But in the midst of all of those "problems" or "failures" is a simple story about Dr Marry and his keys. A story he told me sometime in early May that has stuck with me, like so much of what he has casually said in these three+ years since he got sober.
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Looks can be deceiving
But I was determined not to throw them out only to go and purchase two more chairs. And, truthfully, I really didn't care all that much. Like most of us, we don't use our living room all that often, so it was kind of an out of sight, out of mind thing. Also, I'm so not a "matching living room furniture set" kind of person.
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Committed to it all
So today I sit in my sunroom, overlooking the yard where we happily celebrated making this commitment to each other 12 years ago, and think, as I often have done in these past three years, what if I hadn't held on?
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Watch. Hit rewind. Play again.
We repainted our bedroom yesterday; a task we have been talking about for nearly as long as we have been married (one week short of 12 years). Social isolation has given us the time to do a ton of house projects, and I am grateful. The verdict is still out on the bedroom for me, despite the fact that I picked the color, but I am glad we did something in there. Aside: When Quinn was young, he was obsessed with Space Jam and watched it over and over for about three years. Dr Marry tells this funny story of one of the first nights he was babysitting. They were building LEGOs and…
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Forming new habits to carry on
I can’t be the only person who has almost forgotten what “regular” life used to be like, can I? Am I the only one who has fallen into the new normal as if getting up for spin class, coming home to shower and rush out the door, tearing home to let the dog out and grabbing something quick for lunch, packing my work into days that spilled into post-dinner more often than not, hurrying to put something on the table for supper and sometimes grumbling about another thing I have to do/event I have to attend in the evening never really existed? Is anybody else trying desperately to figure out…
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An added bonus amidst the stress
Before I had my current job, I was primarily a freelance writer and actor. That meant I had a lot of time at home to peruse the Internet, thinking about dinner (much of the world)/supper (midwesterners and definitely my mother) plans nearly every day. I love to read recipes, backstories, comments and reviews, and I have really missed that leisurely stroll through food blogs in the nearly 10 years since I started at The Arts Partnership. I still am the primary cook (Dr Marry will want me to tell you that’s because I don’t particularly appreciate his style of cooking, which is to throw nearly everything but the kitchen sink…
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Some things I am grateful for
I woke up early this morning, but it was already a little bit light out. This is one of my very favorite things about springtime—the coming of longer days. So I laid in bed for a minute and thought about all the little and big things I have come to be grateful for in this uncertain time: A much slower pace. In the morning, for example, Dr Marry and I have time to enjoy a cup of tea because we’re not running out the door to spin class. Multiple daily walks with Dr Marry and our pup Lilly through the neighborhood. Bread baking. Time to think about making lunch and…
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Dr Marry, by any other name, would be as sweet…
Over the course of writing this blog, a number of people have queried as to why I refer to my beloved spouse as Dr Marry. Let the querying be put to rest. Quite simply, I call him Dr Marry in honor of Jane Austen. I present these examples of what I speak: “Mr Bennet, Mr Bennet, good news! Netherfield Park is let at last!” Mrs Bennet, Pride and Prejudice “Anne found an unexpected interest here. She felt its application to herself, felt it in a nervous thrill all over her, and at the same moment that her eyes instinctively glanced towards the distant table, Captain Wentworth’s pen ceased to move,…
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Two Voices of Hope: Counting Our Blessings, an Epilogue (9c podcast)
In this, our final podcast and post of this journey, we wrap up this nine-week multi-media experience about Dr Marry’s fall into alcoholism and our shared path back to sobriety. But mostly, this podcast is about gratitude. Gratitude for the doctors, nurses and staff of Sanford; the insurance worker at Sanford who eased my mind and the woman on the phone from MN Blue Cross and Blue Shield. The Prairie St John’s staff and residents. Former students, friends and strangers who wrote to lift us up, to share their own journey, to say thank you. Grateful for the friends and colleagues who helped us conceive of this format. Grateful to…