I have picked a tie for each person that played a significant part in my recovery journey of the last 3-1/2 years. Each heart is palm sized and hand-cut and stitched. The hearts will hang as a collection so that each side can be viewed. I have used the ‘back sides’ to embellish with something that speaks to the gifts I have received from these recovery angels and ties this work back to the small leather hearts I stitched years ago.

I had to fight for years to have a doctor write in my chart this diagnosis: Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome (CVS). Maybe he had to cross out ‘crazy’ to record it. I was crazy because I vomited inexplicably and uncontrollably for 20 hours at a time and then after a break of 24-48 hours it would cycle and begin again.

A big part of recovery is being able to tell your story in a way that conveys both how you got to the day you decided this is it - I’m done. And what it has looked like since then. I am a story teller myself, bred from some ultimate story tellers. I had not been able to see my addiction & recovery story as anything but something really embarrassing that happened to me…

I knew I was addicted to alcohol. The struggle in addiction is just that. Knowing the situation and watching the battle that seems out of your control. You are both in the ring fighting and watching powerless from the sidelines. It is a fight for your life and the worst part is you think you know your enemy so intimately that if you could just get them alone you are sure you could work it out.