I'm Baaack !!!

I’m sorry I was gone for a long while and was remiss in regularly publishing some posts.  I was away with my wife on an extended fun trip with some good friends.  I didn’t have any way to publish my posts while we were traveling.  We were on a ship or out in the middle of nowhere most of the time which left me plenty of time to think about what I would like to say but no way to hook up to the internet so I could publish.  I also had opportunity to talk to lots of folks about my blog. More about that later. During this time away, I thought a great deal about this blog and potential topics.  The whole time I was away, I have been considering lots of the topics most of which I have stored in that iron vault I choose to call my memory.  Most of the topics in the memory vault build on the topics I have already covered here in past posts. All of the potential posts in my memory vault are in various stages of development.  Some of them are nearly all set to be published while others are no more than a skinny undeveloped notion.  I will be coming back to them in the near future and look forward to picking up where I left off.  In the meantime, I’d like to discuss topics that arose during my trip.  Folks I traveled with and those I encountered on the trip asked me lots of questions and told me stories that provided me with material for discussion here.

This may be a good time to talk about one of the hazards of my profession. I’m sure you’ve all had the experience that in casual conversation the question of one’s profession often arises.  When asked what I do/did for a living I respond; I am/was a psychologist, marriage and family counselor, drug alcohol counselor (pick one or more, I wear/wore several professional hats). In reaction to this disclosure, folks will say; “oh that’s nice, can I talk to you about my family member/friend, I have a purely hypothetical case I’d like your opinion on” or similar.

They want to tell me how good they are at relationships, how bad somebody else is at relationships or want some advice on how to make things better.  Of course none of this about them but a friend, co-worker, family member, member of their congregation, etc.  Next time, let me tell you about one of these encounters where the speaker wanted to know what might have reduced the “zing” in their relationship and what might be done to reinject the “zing back into it.

I have taken to ending these posts with a quote that moved me in some way.  My only intend is to share them with you.  It would be nice if they related to the content of the post in more than a peripheral way and served as a relevant exclamation point for the post. Yes, wouldn’t that be nice.  It doesn’t work out that way.  In any case here is my latest.

In the end there doesn’t have to be anyone who understands you. There just has to be someone who wants to.

Robert Brault