Category: Recovery

To my friend & life coach Scott Collins – thank you for your gift. RIP.


My original post on New Year’s Day has “percolated” into the following – my 2.105  personal Brand and Intentions.  Thank you to Scott Collins – friend and life coach, who taught me some new tools for living before he left us.  Your spirit lives on.  I think of you whenever I see the “eternal flame” candle at Broadway, and for that I’m grateful.  I still use a “Scott Collins Plan” template  regularly to coach the best out of life…

Todd Fuqua, Community Connector & Reflector

Living into visible, intentional, compassionate community thru conversations, faith, meals & action

The building out of my “personal brand”

  • Baking – which is really about sharing generously with others; showing hospitality; eating meals together and building community
  • Tech Geek (digital photos, websites, social media, remixing) – which is really about creating or using tools to enhance but not dominate life and having fun
  • Travel – which is really about seeing more of our world and nature; connecting with people; and having fun… whenever possible with my soul mate, friends or family and on a motorcycle
  • Photography – which is really about telling stories; connecting with others through empathy and creativity; and building community 
  • Blogging – which is really about telling stories; connecting with others through empathy and creativity; and building community
  • Being with Loved Ones (my soul mate, family, friends & pets) – which is really about finding shelter and being home; naming, connecting & sharing one another’s gifts on a level playing field; and unconditional love 

My perceived gifts that support my “personal brand”

Empathy. Creativity. Compassion. Integrity. Authenticity. Joy. Love.

The organizational realization of my “personal brand”

CToddCreations
www.CToddCreations.com
Sharing hope through creative photography & videography

Second Chance ConneXions
www.SCConneXions.org
Connecting experienced professionals with needs in the community

Candlestick House & Engagement Center
www.Candlestickhouse.org
Individuals helping individuals lead fulfilling lives in community 

CTRecoveryJourney
ctrecoveryjourney.wordpress.com
inspiring each other to greater understanding, peace and health

 2.015 intentions for taking action
“Be Mindful, Authentic & in Community”
(knowing my Higher Power will bless my actions with Her desired outcomes)

  • Intentional community
  • Time banking
  • Compassionate communication 
  • Social Justice & Inclusion personal passion for re-entry, recovery, mental health, homelessness, poverty, LGBTQ, HIV/AIDS

Plan to be spontaneous. Live in the present.
Choose the healthier option.
Listen. Observe. Ask questions.
Be comfortable with “good enough” and “I don’t know.”
Practice serenity.
Admit when wrong. Forgive first. Love always.

New Year Ahead – what is in your heart?


A friend recently introduced me to a new way of thinking about New Year’s Eve, and all the “hype” leading up to a changing digit or two in the date…

That in which you are engaging or contemplating this evening will become your intentions for and in the New Year.

So, as I considered this evening’s activities, I created time and place for the following passions or gifts:

  • Baking  – which is really about sharing generously with others, showing hospitality, eating meals together, and building community
  • Photography  – which is really about telling stories, connecting with others through empathy and creativity, and building community 
  • Tech Geek (digital photos, website, social media, video remixing) – which is really about creating, using a tool to enhance but not dominate life, and having fun
  • Blogging –  which is really about telling stories, connecting with others through empathy and creativity, and building community 🙂

In that same time, he is doing the same for the following passions and gifts:

  • Acro-Yoga – which is really about building community, making healthy life choices and having fun
  • Body Work – which is really about building intimate community, being aware of one’s self in relation to others and to the universe, and having fun

And he will join me afterwards, where we will enjoy the following shared passion:

  • Being with Loved Ones (Family, Friends & Pets) – which is about finding shelter and being home, unconditional love…and warm hot cocoa!  Add your own thoughts…

 

Peace, love and light for you in 2015…

Integrity…”this ability to listen inside is our oldest oar.”


I so treasure my daily devotionals from Mark Nepo. Unfolding with my own life experiences, his works are some I’ve come across in recent years that have changed my worldview.

Today’s reading is a helpful reminder on integrity, and self-acceptance…

Integrity is the ability to listen to a place inside oneself that doesn’t change, even though the life that carries it may change. —RABBI JONATHAN OMER-MAN

Much of our journey throughout this book has been about discovering that place inside and cultivating the ability to listen to it, while having compassion for the life that carries it.

It moves me to share the story of a troubled man who, exhausted from his suffering and confusion, asked a sage for help. The sage looked deeply into the troubled man and with compassion offered him a choice: “You may have either a map or a boat.”

After looking at the many pilgrims about him, all of whom seemed equally troubled, the confused man said, “I’ll take the boat.”

The sage kissed him on the forehead and said, “Go then. You are the boat. Life is the sea.”

As we have discovered so many times, we have everything we need within us. This ability to listen inside is our oldest oar. You are the boat.

~ Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening

I know in the past, I would have asked for the map…wanting someone or something outside of myself to give me my answers, my Truth. With life’s experience and some sage counsel, I’ve grown to trust my own voice, my own oar… As one of my favorite musicals recounts, “the Starlight Express is within me…”