PARADIGM SHIFT
Through a series of events that God
had put together, this atheist of nine
years found herself praying. I was
praying to the God I wasn’t sure was
really there. Life was a mess. I was
hurting those I professed to love.
Drinking too much and making
terrible choices.
We drank while rafting, we drank
while dancing, we drank with meals,
we drank while hiking, we drank and
played games, we drank and
barbequed. That was just our group.
Jim was the one we worried about.
Jim was an alcoholic. Jim passed out
while playing the piano or in
someone’s front yard and didn’t
remember how he got there. The
rest of us, well, WE didn’t pass out
and we, of course, weren’t
alcoholics.
When we were broke, we bought
gallons of Red Mountain wine and
had wine coolers. When we were not
broke, we drank Bacardi 151 and
coke, made mai tais, daquirs and ice
cream with kalua and brandy in the
blender for dessert.
We drank when we smoked dope to
cool our throats. We drank to
celebrate, to relax, because the fruity
stuff tasted good and to party. We
drank when we didn’t even have an
excuse.
Atheist
No
More
Her life was a tangled snare,
until one day
while getting ready for work…
Marijo Phelps
Somewhere in there I began to get
glimpses of who I was and how my
tongue sliced up those I loved when I
56
JASMINE'S PLACE
56