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Coming Soon: The Portland Foodcart Book!

Foodcarts are all the rage these days, in Portland and elsewhere, and just as the wave is cresting, there’s a book about it! Or, there will be very soon.
Check out Cartopia: Portland’s Foodcart Revolution. It’s not so much a guidebook as it is “documenting – through stories and photography – the perfect storm of Portland’s independent culture, artisan economy, and foodie scene that created the street food revolution.” In other words, it’s about the big picture: the food, people, architecture, economy, urban planning, and the social scene.

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That Whole “Contact” Thing

I am occasionally exposed to the smell of weed, and often to the sight and smell of booze. And usually there’s a little voice in my head that says, “Let’s get some of that!”

To that voice, I say, “It makes sense that you would want that, and I understand, but for right now I’m going to choose not to.” And I accept that I will hear from that little voice again.

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“Have I Become Too Busy?”

My share on the Recovery Pipeline

 
Man, this one hits close to home! I realized this morning I haven’t meditated in a week, am constantly running around, and yet always feel behind.

I am addicted to “busy-ness,” and for the life of me, I can’t figure out what I am avoiding. Whenever somebody asks what I would do without all this stuff to do, I say exercise, meditate, read, write, spend quality time with friends — all GREAT stuff.
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From Anger to Laughter

I had dinner last night with a friend in recovery who had just had a terrible temper outburst with another recovery friend. He called me because he was afraid he was about to physically attack somebody. So we spent two hours over coffee, and he went from mad as hell to both of us laughing about how mad he had gotten, and talking about how he can make amends.
We both agreed that if we could condense that two hours into a moment, and take that moment whenever we hear something that upsets us, we’d have (and create) a lot less grief in the world.

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Facing Fears

My sponsor, sober 31 years and with a heck of a program, says that when he’s at his best in recovery, he is facing his fears head-on. In fact, he often says that when he was young in recovery, he would go through times when if he was afraid of something, that meant he needed to do it. For example, if he thought somebody was an asshole, he’d take them dinner just to learn more about them.

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Am I on the Right Track Here?

an email to my sponsor:

 
I was at a Buddhist meditation group Friday night at the church, and the topic was facing fears so they won’t dominate us. One of the fears mentioned was the fear of alone-ness, and the light came on in my head: that’s why I make such a big deal out of this dating stuff — it triggers that fear, and I get overwhelmed by it. And my whole thing with women is trying to assuage that fear of alone-ness. I approach them saying, “Please don’t reject me and make me be all alone,” and like you say, that ain’t a very attractive trait. Doomed to fail, and the fear (ego) is proven right.

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