The sun is shining so brilliantly and the mountains call us to head for a walk!  Must make some time to walk my puppies out on the rolling terrain.  Thinking today of love and loss and grieving; as many of my friends and clients are hurting.  What can we really say about human suffering?  There are many lenses we can examine suffering through: religious, philosophical, educational, karmic.  However pain is pain and it hurts and it makes cry and ache.  I think rejection and death of a loved one are the worst pain we can experience.  As human beings, social creatures, we all long to belong to various groups.  We want acceptance and love and tolerance.  People who can't gain acceptance along socially acceptable avenues sometimes gravitate to negative attentions.  Drugs, alcohol, deviant sexual behaviors, crime, etc.  Oftentimes when examined, these behaviors are simply an attempt to belong to a group, to gain love and acceptance in a way that is open to explore when other paths are closed.

Death of a child is stated to be the most grievous of losses.  I can only imagine when I think of how I collapse when I lose a pet.  A child.....unspeakable.  They  WHY?  WHY does an innocent child have to suffer and why must the parents have to feel this absolute horror.  I do not believe any institutional thought can truly give us these answers.  Our universe can be random doling out storms and adversities we can never quite understand; Katrina and Nazi Germany come to mind.

Rejection!  I remember when my dad died.  I was 4 years old and it was very sudden.  My mom brought me to the neighbors house and led me to the kiddie pool.  The children that day decided they did not want little DOREEN in the pool.  Who knows why?  Kids can be mean.  However, the devastation that created in me lasted me my whole lifetime.  My dad had just passed and I was so raw and sensitive and now a group of my peers - 4 years old and up - did not want me.  It hurt to make an imprint so deep that I am still talking about it at 65 years old.  It was the first of many such rejection.  Rejection.  I don't even like the word.

Today I will think to be kind with all my friends, family and acquaintances.  Life is hard enough without meanness.  I hope you feel loved and secure today.  For today....I feel warm, loved and protected with my family, pets and friends.  Be safe and nurture  yourself today.  Do something special for you.  Remember MAN'S REJECTION IS GOD'S PROTECTION!!!!!

Wow!  The exquisite Smokies are blue today.  You can see the mountains distinctly behind a gray, white background.  So serene and lovely.  Nature does help to establish balance in the human heart.  Sometimes I long for the Long Island breathtaking oceans.  I am a New Yorker to the core.  I love the high spirited no bullshit people.  We say what is on our mind and we deal with it.  This is my 7th Christmas here in Tennessee and I simply adore some of the people.  Kindred souls: loving, inquiring, standing up for the less fortunate, and passionate.  I have made friends here in the South that I know will be a life long bond.  The spirituality of many here in the Bible Belt make them strive to be really good people.  How I love them!

I have learned a lot through working in the South: some of it very good and some of it awful.  Jobs are not numerous and management treats people like garbage!  I have seen really good people ushered to the door without a moment's notice - their belongings in a box and out they go!  I had occasion to feel so insulted, I packed my belongings and did what management usually does -  Adios Amigo!  Find someone else to wipe your boots on because you will never do it on me!  I have taught empowerment for 20 years and I'm not about to lose my power to anyone!  Mutual respect or nothing.  It's a New York thing!  Some still think it is ok to treat people like slaves.  That doesn't go down well with  Yankees!!

So, I will do what I do best!!!  Work for myself!!  Now if you need help with addiction...go to the 12 step rooms.  Immerse yourself in AA/NA and don't come up for air.  You will get all you need for addiction there.  Rehabs and treatment are money making arenas that simply get you ready to do AA/NA.  Addiction treatment is there.  Period.  Those who say it isn't are making money peddling "recovery".  Not good.

Good therapy will seldom be paid for by insurance.  Years ago, in the age of psychoanalysis, people came to therapy 3 times a week!!!  The mind and emotions were explored and celebrated.  Insurance came in and said to practitioners "cure them in 20 visits."  Some yes, some no.  I have had people with good insurance and they have been granted sufficient sessions to heal, but often that is not the case.  I hate insurance in all its forms. I studied with a therapist who was leaving the insurance business and he said often, "insurance is evil."  Not sure about that but in medicine and behavioral health it is insufficient at times.

Peaceful Mountain Counseling will attempt to offer people support and healing the old fashioned way.  Anxiety, depression, confusion, adjustment, transition, relationship issues, are all suitable for psychotherapy.  Referral for short-term detox and non chemical addiction treatment can be discussed.  Codependency help is encouraged.  Lifestyle changes and life coaching to help people make career and relationship changes is available.

May I never have to work for anyone who wants me to be on the computer more than with my clients.  Why is is different now?  I'm 65 and have Medicare.  No more need to worry about health insurance.  It's a wonderful thing.  

Have faith that you can get where you need to be and don't follow any "guru" who tries to tell you he/she has the answer to your life.  

God bless!  Doreen