When I embarked on recovery from alcoholism in 2002 I was told that in sobriety I could find a life beyond my wildest dreams. At my very early stage of that journey, sobriety itself was exactly that; I felt I needeed no more. My life was on track and that was all that mattered. I was in a state of euphoria that led me to believe nothing bad could ever happen to me again now I was sober; I was exempt from all life’s possible ills. How very naive I was.
Three years later my right foot started to become weak; it’s a long story and not the main point of this post but I mention it as it has some relevance. I was at the beginning of a long and arduous path of investigations and tests which was to cover a duration of six years, culminating in a diagnosis of progressive multiple sclerosis. The euphoria was well and truly squashed and I felt short changed. The life beyond my wildest dreams had been snatched away from me very cruelly and I was angry.
A great deal of hard work was necessary for me to come to terms with everything and I put my life on hold while I processed what was happening. During this period of time something was stirring in the depths of my soul and as a consequence of my thoughts and feelings shouting at me to put them on paper, I stumbled upon poetry. Or maybe I should say poetry stumbled upon me. I began blogging in order to share my poetry and gradually met other bloggers who began following me and I followed them. A community of like minded people developed and most of us are still following and supporting each other today.
Now to the main point of this post!
In March of this year my poetry book ‘Dancing in the Rain’ was published by Bennison Books. If this isn’t life beyond my wildest dreams, then I don’t know what is! It was a wonderful experience working with the publisher and I learned so much, both about poetry and about myself. I am fortunate to be part of a wonderful writing group, and my tutor suggested a book launch and said he would host it for me. This was such a privilege. After a struggle to find an appropriate venue, I finally discovered that The Heart Cafe, Enterprise and Arts Centre in Leeds had a room the perfect size. The book launch was last Friday the 5th June . We had a fabulous evening and all my family and friends were there to support me. I read three poems, Glenda my very dear friend from the writing group read three and James our tutor read the final two. I was also interviewed by him – another new experience! It was a very successful and happy event. Adversity can sometimes present us with gifts we could never have imagined. A life beyond my wildest dreams? I think so!
The book is selling very well and has already raised an impressive amount of money for The MS Trust to help them in their valuable work.
Below are some photos of the launch and for anyone who has the patience and inclination to watch the video, the link is below.
Thank you to all my blogging friends for supporting me along the way with encouragement and love over the past few years. Im sure that without you none of this would have happened. There are wild dreams out there for us all; we simply have to reach out and catch them.
https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSL4PG2dNVI8dvXzDA8bzklH0OEtgeLp9
journeyintopoetry 