Drugs...Death & Dancing: PART II

...you can't scare me, I'm a Mom...

How to share a story, when you don't know for sure

when it started? 

We are just your normal, middle class family...

who LOVE get-togethers, bar-b ques, home made ice cream. 

Plant gardens, help grand-parents!   Attend ball-games...

participate in ball-games,

ref ball-games!

Hunt, trap, fish, ride horses and camp in the mountains...we cut down a real Christmas tree, every year!

...except the year of a thousand tears...then this changed...

~SING~

We listen to all of the greats: Brahms, Mozart, Neil Young...Allison Krauss, and many, many more.

As children, if you were naughty...you got a "whoppin"

as teenagers, if you broke a family rule, you lost a privilege...

as an adult...go against society, and you will

suffer the consequence, in fines, jail...or both. 

We dance to music, take walks, work on service projects... 

help those, who can't help themselves.

Watch our favorites on TV...John Wayne, a constant. 

Little Rascals, Mickey Mouse cartoons...The Spoken Word!

Went on long rides...because that was the most accessible vacation we could afford.

 Prayed & played together, worked together, worshiped together...

and then

 laughed or cried as we relived those moments time and time again around the kitchen table. 

We started every single day with breakfast together.

TOGETHER WE WIN

DIVIDED WE FALL

WE WIN

TOGETHER...

OR IT'S NO WIN AT ALL.

...I can talk smack about my siblings...but if YOU do, watch your back...

 

The pipe possession...

TRUST...the easiest thing to loose, the hardest to earn back...

Dropping out of High School...

...but he was brilliant...and bored, needed more challenge...

That little chunk of dust on the top of the dresser...

He cleaned his room daily, it was immaculate...how did he miss this?

Repo of a cherished truck...

one morning we woke up...it was gone

The incident I originally referred to, is specific to our middle son, but...

ad-dic-tion  noun

: a strong and harmful need to regularly have something

(such as a drug) or do something

(such as gamble)  

1) the quality or state of being ADDICTED

2)  compulsive need for & use of a habit forming substance (as heroin, nicotine, or alcohol) characterized by tolerance and well-defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal:

broadly...persistent compulsive use of a substance known by a user to be harmful 

affected, every single one of us, in one form or another.

The definition I used came from WEBSTER's Dictionary.

I would add, prescription drugs if improperly used: EXCESSIVE intake of butter, sugar, exercise, porn, watching too much TV,  playing video games, FB (or any other such social media),

coffee, caffeine, chocolate, soda pop...fanatics in religion... just about ANYTHING, accepted by the realms of society, that exceeds the boundaries of moderation, and becomes harmful to your over all well being.

I remember being so concerned about THE BROTHERS, one night that I put on a pair of well-worn house slippers, called for our dog Bison, and went to looking through the neighborhoods. They are adults at this time...but had been staying with us.   A couple of hours later, I found them, playing a game of hoops with friends at a park I was not familiar with.

A feeling of unease would not dissipate.

I convinced myself, that THEY KNEW BETTER, they had been raised right.  Forget the dust you found on the dresser, and the outburst...and deferred explanation of the outburst.  The hard part, after exercising agency to choose, is the ACCOUNTABILITY part...the living through consequences.  And there are consequences to EVERY single choice we make, good, bad or indifferent.

The fear I felt...was when I knew, the consequences were going to be dire.  I just did not know, how dire~

"Perhaps it takes COURAGE, to raise children."

~John Steinbeck:  East of Eden