This Hat is a Helmet

(Want to listen instead?? More screen time! I narrate my story in audio format here ) For those of you who have ever had pets, have you ever envied them? Bob is laying on the floor next to my bed in his (though at some point in the night he’ll jump up and snuggle next to me, making his bed almost irrelevant). His little paws are currently twitching and muffled “woof” sounds are escaping through his big jowls as he slips into a dream. Truthfully, I don’t think I would actually like being a dog. It would frustrate me not being able to choose the food I want to eat. I wouldn’t like being crated. And I don’t think I would enjoy risking pinkeye every time I greeted another of my kind… But I do envy Bob’s ability to fall asleep anywhere, instantly. It’s late at night and although I’m tired, I can’t fall asleep. I’m visiting back home in Winnipeg and I’m staying with my parents in the house I grew up in. I’m currently laying in bed, in my old room. The walls are now a lig...

You can listen to this post instead! Audio found here . I’m sitting on a plane right now. I’m going back to Winnipeg for the holidays, for a month. Bob is coming with me (of course). It’s his fourth time flying to Winnipeg - he goes in cargo. I’ve got the window seat, as I do, and almost exactly one year ago I was on this same flight, Bob in cargo, headed back to Winnipeg for the first time in about four years. This is one of those milestone moments - a point in time perfectly set up for me to reflect on everything that’s happened in the past year: how much has changed, what has stayed the same and how I’ve progressed in my recovery. Yet what I’m currently thinking about is vomiting. Now, I’m not sure how your mind justified that last sentence - if your thoughts were able to paint a gross picture that connected what has been said to make sense of the matter. But it’s likely that whatever you were thinking was not what I was intending. Try instead picturing a...