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Tools for Life

Coming from a long lines of mental illness and untreated addiction, where every non-happy feeling was perceived as anger and responded to with anger, I picked up some unfortunate coping and operating styles.  This wall of tools is the perfect metaphor for the tools for life before and now, with recovery.  The left side needs little explanation.

The dustpan and brush, I need for for cleaning up little messes I make.  Tape for repairing things that are fixable.  Soft gloves, for handling of fragile or prickly things with care.  A measuring tape and timer to help me give space and time between an incident and my response.  Knee pads for the time I spend on my knees waiting and asking for guidance.   A flashlight for times when it feels dark for me or a trusted other.  A needle and thread for sewing back together those things which can be mended.  Love is always the answer.  Accepting my full range of emotions and developing healthy tools for coping are miracles of recovery.

Recovery tools are wholesome and 100%badass.  What are some of your metaphorical tools for life?

Published by Magda Gee

I am in a program of recovery for those whose lives have been affected by someone else's drinking, drug use, mental illness. I am newly learning faith, hope, and courage, practices not witnessed by me, in my childhood, with my family. Sadly, No Contact, as a last resort, is how I keep safe from diminishing words and actions directed at me. I think I have listened for the last time to how I deserve mistreatment. By holding out for something more wholesome and loving, I have been both banished and demanded to return. I prefer serenity to proximity. I will continue with my program and faith in the best possible outcome, so long as I do my part-- to stalk GOD as if my life depends on it.

3 Replies to “Tools for Life”

  2. I like this idea, but it will take a while to get clear about what the “old” tools are and what are the “new” ones.

    1) a good one. A scale. Not for weighing myself necessarily, although that, too. But I need sometimes to weigh my choices, the ideas that I am considering for some action.2) a bad one.
    A baseball bat. It is for attacking people (self-defense), keeping them away from me, scaring them.
    I can also accept the dust pan and brush for cleaning up messes after myself.
    But I also like to have some really potent antimicrobial spray, to kill germs and to insure that they do not come back. This can be lethal, even to the user, and I may lose track of whether it is or is not.
    A telephone. I can use it to call for help, for company, to order things. This is good, a very good thing.
    A dog. He is not exactly a tool, though. He keeps me company, is my little love and child. He also causes messes, is a friend to the cats, more or less. He eats better than I do.

    I should think about this some more. Slogans. CAL. What WOULD my shop look like?

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