It's funny, now that Anna is back here and back on track-she's happy, resolute in her ambitions, and forward thinking. The fact that she is stuck on her social media stuff--facebook, cell texting, etc-has made keeping her on an even keel, alot more difficult. The stuff people write back and forth to one another can be extremely hurtful and very damaging. The fact that people interchange passwords and can easily hack into one another's sites, makes it even more difficult to determine who is saying what about whom...
It really makes thing cloudy especially when dealing with people who lie so easily that their lies are often their truths. There should be a bullsh-t detector Apple comes up with that immediately picks up bs on the computer and relegates it to some trash area. Now that's an app worth investigating!
I received a couple of calls from a wonderful woman in LA who recently lost her son to the entanglements drug use creates. She has been receiving threatening facebook comments and texts regarding how she handled her son's death and funeral. The threats apparently come from a person I am well acquainted with and this woman has threatened to turn the texts into the DA's office for possible prosecution. The text messages are alarming and painful for a mother of a deceased child to hear. I am reminded by her that there is a word for a widow and a widower, but there is no specific word for a person who has lost their child. It's one of our unspoken human taboos-to even think that your child would die before you is, well, unthinkable! Then, to have that pain return to you in unkind and hurtful words is, well, beyond any pain I could imagine. I spoke to her and hopefully soothed her, but I find that I am unable to "reach" the person sending these notes. I cannot, for certain, determine who of several people it may be, so I am left to assume (ASS of U and ME) and that is never good. But, should this person not stop this harassment, said person will be arrested.
Anna has almost every detail of her up coming excursion planned to a "T". The biggest variables now are extraneous ones I have no control over. Most of these variables concern "old tapes" and those wonderful "buttons" that are so easily pushed by those we love the most. If Anna can avoid verbal conflict with her mother, I believe she will actually be able to pull off a short stint in LA without major repercussion. The key is to keep her visit as short as possible and as focused as possible on the things Anna needs to do there before departing for what could be an extended period of time. Her mother and sister will be joining her father for a few days away from LA, and I will suggest to them all that Anna be allowed to join her father as soon as all her work in LA has been accomplished. From there Anna will move on directly to Chiang Mai and the experience that awaits her. Although I have yet to speak with her father, my gut feeling is that his relationship with Anna is not as conflicting as Anna's relationship with her mother, so if I can get father and daughter together the less likely, I believe, Anna is of being drawn into conflict based upon past actions.
I know fears are based on past actions and experiences, and there are even innate internal fears that run so deep as to be almost instinctual. The growl of a large animal at night terrifies most of us. That is almost instinctual. But, we learn to fear people who burn us, and Anna's mother has been so burned. In my book I discuss this, how addicts often burn bridges that are sometimes impossible to rebuild. However, I ask you, when does a parent turn their child away from home? Are our possessions so valuable as to exclude the very children we give birth to in lieu of our "things". Is it a question of sanity? Do we disallow our child access to our homes to save our own sanity? What about the insidious guilt that follows that? I have tried to "keep out" my child but find I am unable to do so for very long. An hour or two, maybe. I find myself asking myself "Why did I have this child in the first place?
Life is an experience and I believe there to be little difference between pain and love. These universal feelings are our guides to happiness in this world. It is the same to face pain as it is to face love. Opening to the experience allows us to grow. By trying to limit those experiences we end up limiting our own earthly experiences. We shortchange ourselves one way or the other in order to protect what we think is "ours". What we are usually protecting is an illusion to begin with. Possessions, ultimately can provide only temporary sense of happiness which usually goes away in a short while. True happiness can only be experienced from within either individually or in unison with others. Shared experiences create the growth that leads to happiness here. Cut out the illusion and what is left is the real emotional impact of our lives! Our pains and our loves!

It is probable that Anna will leave here tomorrow. I will be anxious for her, yet satisfied knowing that Anna is on a path toward her personal happiness. I wish there was a little nanobot me I could stick in her ear to remind her of the 4P's, of how important to her focus to her intention is, and how much I believe in her journey, but alas, I am no replicable nanobot. Instead, hopefully she'll keep her well-worn PREHAB book handy.

www.prehab2rehab.com
PREHAB: The Essentials for Successful Change
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