I am very glad he’s getting my dad high

by Lisa Kohn | Mar 25, 2019 | My Story

If you’ve read to the moon and back, you know that Danny (my dad) had a friend, “Tony”, to whom he used to (jokingly) offer to sell me to for cocaine. (If you haven’t read it yet, here’s a sample chapter that will hopefully entice you to.) While I may have somehow...

I’m no longer calling him the Messiah

by Lisa Kohn | Feb 18, 2019 | My Story

There’s a line I use when I describe a particularly scarring moment in my adolescence – “The Messiah said I was bad.” In many ways this accurately captures what happened. A dear friend of mine was caught in a desperate situation, and in order to protect herself – to...

Choose joy

by Lisa Kohn | Feb 4, 2019 | My Story

It’s an easy reminder, and it’s an easy reminder to forget. Choose joy. Take charge of my thought process and find the thought that feels a bit easier. That brings me more light. Face what I have to face, solve what I have to solve, do what I have to do – and then...

Be more. Do less.

by Lisa Kohn | Jan 21, 2019 | My Story

When I crawled into Al-Anon decades and decades ago, I heard the concept, “I am a human being, not a human doing.” I wrapped my head around it and began to remind myself to just be rather than do, and to remind myself again to just be rather than do. It is a tough...

I’m going to make this day the day

by Lisa Kohn | Jan 7, 2019 | My Story

It’s a new day. It’s a new year. I’m finding myself tied up in things I want to happen. Things that are, in many ways, for now at least, out of my control. I find myself caught in an endless loop of questions – What do I need to do? How can I make this happen? When...

This is your life. Right. Now.

by Lisa Kohn | Dec 31, 2018 | My Story

This is not a dress rehearsal. That is what someone told me decades ago, when I crawled into Al-Anon. It’s not like this is the practice run for our next life. This is it. I mean, it may be a practice run – and sometimes I like to think it is because I’d like to come...