Christmas Tree Sale!

Each year for the past 20 years TLC volunteers have been selling Christmas trees on various street corners around the valley.  

This year, because much of the Pacific Northwest was on fire for several months, we weren't sure we would be able to secure enough trees to make it worthwhile to try to sell them.  Some of our sources had lost their inventories to the wildfires.  And many of those who had trees were charging too much to make it worthwhile to try to sell them.

However, this year we got lucky again.  One of our longtime suppliers - out of Oregon - works with us each year and supplies trees at a lot he owns at 3889 W. Bethany Home road in Phoenix.   

He sold us some 2000 trees, including Douglas, Noble, Grand Firs and Nordmans of all sizes.  Prices range from $45.00 to $250.00, depending on size.  We also flock trees for $10.00 a foot.

100% of the funds raised by this project will be used - after labor and cost of trees - to provide Christmas meals, housing, toys and other benefits to formerly homeless addicts who are now in recovery from substance abuse.

Early arrivals will find the best selections.  And they will be helping recovering addicts on their paths to a better life.  If you have questions you can reach our lot supervisor at 602-348-6102.

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Learning a Trade

Over the past 30 years we've had many addicts come into TLC with just the clothes on their backs.  Most of them have no money, no jobs, no cars. Nothing.  No trade skills.  No job references.

But because they have suffered through homelessness, hunger, and sometimes even prison, they are grateful to have a roof over their head, a bed, and three meals a day.  They become very grateful.  And they express their gratitude by volunteering for various positions around the program.

Some become drivers.  Some work night security.  Others become maintenance men.  Some volunteer as cooks or house managers.  And those who stick around for four or five years often end up buying an automobile and a house and start living like so-called "normal" citizens.

Then we have those who - after they graduate - become employees and start making a salary comparable to what they could make in the private sector.  Most of these employees stay on track and do their jobs and are happy to be sober and show it by their behavior.  

Others leave the program and start their own their own businesses.  One early graduate moved out of state and earns around $150,000 a year as a painting contractor.  Another resident who was with us in the mid-nineties sent me a video of him receiving a Doctorate Degree in Business.  Others have volunteered at TLC as roofers, carpenters, tile layers, and maintenance men and moved on and found permanent positions outside the program.

Their success has inspired us start making plans to add a formal trade school component to our program.  We have enough skilled supervisors who are willing to pass their skills on to clients.  We simply have to figure out how we're going to fund it, how long we'll train them, etc.  We expect to get this program working sometime after the first of the year, perhaps in late January.

Stay tuned.

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Around the Holidays

Thanksgiving at a treatment program like TLC always creates more work for the staff.

First of all the managers of the various houses have to start planning at least a month ahead, gathering turkeys, hams, and the side dishes to fix dinner for their residents.  While we normally provide three meals a day, we make every effort to go above and beyond on holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter.

Fortunately, we always have a few residents who jump in and help on the holidays, and we always have volunteers who help take some of the burden off of the kitchen staff.

Most of our residents are homeless when they arrive or else have been released to us from a prison term.  The majority of them are grateful for having a roof over their head and food on the table. 

At this time of year I like to recognize and express gratitude to our food banks and other businesses that donate food and supplies so that our residents can enjoy the holidays.

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Thanksgiving Thoughts

Thanksgiving is a good time to be grateful for our lives, our health, our families, our freedoms.  And for us addicts it's a good time to appreciate our recovery.

But like so many of our holidays - Christmas, 4th of July, Easter,  Memorial Day - Thanksgiving seems to have drifted away from the reason it was created.

Instead of an emphasis on gratitude, the focus is on sales, and what kind of meals we're preparing,   In this sentence I placed a link for those who are interested in learning more of the origins of this holiday and what it stands for. 

I don't need a national holiday to find gratitude.  I get up in the morning grateful to be alive, particularly after the kind of life I've led.  For forty years I drank when I had the chance.  I used heroin for 38 years.  And yet, here I am today, relatively healthy and functional and enjoying my 31st year in recovery.

As we age we learn more and more about what life is about and our perspectives change.  I know that when I got sober 31 years ago I thought that if I just had enough material things life would be wonderful.

But I've come to learn that when we have more stuff we just have more things to take care of and maintain.

Some of my associates have said that I should buy a bigger house.  But why?  It just means more work and responsibility. My gratitude lies in my relationships with friends and family - those with whom I can share the many blessings I enjoy each day.

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Being Ill

Every two or three years I get a cold and don't make it to the office.

I know the signs that a cold is creeping up on me.  A slight soreness in my throat.  A general tiredness over my whole body.  My brain is foggy and I check my glasses more often because I think  they're dirty.  But they're not; I just think they just seem that way because my vision is blurry.  I clean them anyway.

Whatever I'm experiencing I know that I don't suffer very well.  I have this idea that I might read something I've been meaning to get to for a while, but before I know it I've been napping for an hour.

Ultimately I get to the point where I'm reminding myself that there are unfortunate souls who live with physical and mental pain of varying degrees all of their lives.

I remind myself that - considering the way I've lived - that that I shouldn't even be alive.  I talk a lot to myself about this and end up feeling foolish about letting a minor ailment be so irritating.

We addicts don't suffer very well because we know how to feel good right away.  But those of us who are serious about recovery know that we'd just end up in more pain and back on the merry-go-round of addiction and have to start all over.

And that's not where I'm going to go.

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Becoming Responsible

A week rarely passes that I don't get an inquiry from a mother asking for help for their son or daughter.

And I always answer them, but I sometimes wonder what would happen if the mother told her child that she was old enough to find help for herself. 

The point here is not to be be hard hearted.  But the reality is that if the child wanted to get tickets to a concert or make reservations at a hotel for a vacation they would have no problem picking up the phone or going onto the internet to start searching.

The only time a prospective client calls on their own is when they've run out of people to help them.  When they get really desperate they somehow find the intelligence and energy to seek help for themselves.

The same thing happened in my own case.  I kept asking my family for help during the years I was using and finally they got tired of it.  It was only when they told me they were no longer going to help me that I sought help on my own.

And it was the best thing that ever happened to me.  I first got sober.  Then I started a business that has been operating for about 30 years.  Before my parents died I was able to make amends to them and repay them for the many times they'd helped me.

Once we take responsibility the for ourselves there's no telling where life will take us.  But it's usually to a much better place that we came from.

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Honor to the Veterans

One of my early memories came in September of 1945 when the president of the United States announced the end of World War II and the surrender of the Japanese.  I recall how the neighbors ran into the streets of our Newport Beach neighborhood, singing, dancing and sharing bottles of alcohol.  It was a truly joyous time in our country and the beginning of a new era.

I think that many people at the time thought that world-wide conflicts would be a thing of the past.  But, as we all know that was a myth, a hope for a better future that many people shared.  Because there's rarely been a time when there hasn't been a conflict between countries in some corner of the world or other.

Military conflict touched my own life in a very personal way when my youngest daughter came home one day and announced that she'd was joining the army just three years after terrorists knocked down the towers in New York City.  When I said she couldn't do that without my permission she reminded me that she was 18 years old and didn't need my permission.

At first I was afraid she wouldn't come back but then I rationalized that the military probably wouldn't send a teenage girl into a dangerous area.  But, before I knew it she was on the border of of Afghanistan and Pakistan in as much danger as anyone else.

Even though she was in a danger zone I somehow was protected from fear and believed she would come back safely.  And she did come back whole.  Though she has had psychological effects from her experiences.

Today we honor those who put their lives on the line to protect the rest of us from harm.  There will likely never be a time when the warriors among us won't be sent to strange places to protect our country's interests,  some putting their lives on the line and some losing them in the process.

I'm just grateful that my child lives a few miles away and I can visitor her whenever I like.

And today I get to thank her for her service.

Click here to email John