Addiction Recovery Story #34, Blue Vervain: Small Comforts for a Blue Lady

I can weather the elements. I can bloom after winter darkness. I can seek beauty and light, and small creature comforts —fashion, makeup, flowers and coffee — can help me along the way. This is #34 in the story series I started 1/31/21.

Straight from her Nature Journal: Blue Vervain, watercolor, Annie Hurley, July 2020. Proud of our daughter — biologist, botanist, artist and good person — headed to University of North Florida in August for a two-year cyanobacteria research fellowship. This art brings beauty. It was not always that way. As I do, our beloved Annie has faced dark times.

I could fall flat on my face now, or curl up in donut position (a term I coined when our white Sugar furball curled up into a tight, tucked round on the sofa).

My heart is heavy over some sad realities in my life #atthismomentintime. They are a burden to hold.

But rather than retreating, I am sitting at a small, round wood Starbucks table in The Mills at Jersey Gardens, the Elizabeth, New Jersey mall with a fancy name. It is eight minutes by car from the program our Brunetti attends every weekday. Rather than barrel along the Turnpike on the 35-minute trek back home, when it’s my turn to drive, I pack lunch and my Rose Gold laptop, zipped in its neoprene Lilly Pulitzer case.

I come to the mall to write.

I have always enjoyed working with other people, in an office. I thrive on personal connections. For today, I sit with my back to the glass Starbucks storefront, where the friendly, helpful young women work. For today, they are my co-workers, scanning my rewards bar code, asking if…