The Gardens of New Rock I am Georgia Grown

The Gardens of New Rock. I am Georgia Grown.

Our class has planted a Spring garden and a classmate is currently working on planting a small herb garden.

We planted : Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Egg Plant and Peppers.

I taught a class recently about the Garden of Journaling. It is most therapeutic for me.

It involved :

The Garden of Recovery. Studying over the Four Flower Pots in ones garden. The Seed of Forgiveness. The Seed of Love. The Seed of Hope. The Seed of Courage.

I entered a contest on facebook at The Georgia Department of Agriculture and my photograph was the most liked and I won a “I am Georgia Grown” “T Shirt”, that I love to wear.

We will be tending the garden through the summer and share in its bountiful harvest.

Below : The Gardens of New Rock and the photograph that I took of the Historic Newton Square that won me the “Georgia Grown” “T” shirt.

On becoming a CPS (Certified Peer Specialist) for the State of Georgia

I am so excited and anxious about tomorrow that I cannot sleep. I will be turning in my Pre -Test for my CPS (Certified Peer Specialist) certification in the morning. It has been a while since I was in college. I never remember being this excited or anxious though. Been wanting to be in the Therapy field for many years now. The opportunity is finally here. I will know May 30th if chosen to take the training classes. If I do not get chosen I will re-apply in the fall. So excited about tomorrow.

On becoming a Georgia Certified Peer Specialist (CPS) Currently reading : The Fred Factor

A day at New Rock consists of the following classes for me :

IPR – Interpersonal Relationships, Health & Fitness, Conflict Resolution, Budgeting and Money Management, Group Planning, Processing (The day’s Activities), Coping Skills, Art, Films in Recovery, Anxiety Management, Social Skills, Music in Recovery, Symptom Management, Current Events, Support Group (where each and everyone can share of their needs of support with the group), Women’s & Men’s Trauma.

These are just a few of the classes that I take and that I am allowed to teach to my peers. I have added my hand prints to the wall this week and have made a piece of Art with copies of my handprints that state Humanity for All.

 

Currently Reading: The Fred Factor, How passion in your work and life can turn the ordinary into the extraordinary.By Mark Sanborn I am currently working on studying for my CPS (Certified Peer Specialist), Certification. I am working on this through View Point Heath, New Rock Day Services and the GMHCN. I am a graduate of Dekalb Technical College Business/Legal Office Diploma along with my Paralegal Certification and am now working on my CPS Certification. I find it very helpful if while studying to document the facts of what I am studying for and it enhances my studying skills. My CPS Ms. Brenda Williams has me set to turn in my CPS Application by May the 27th. I will know then if I am accepted for the training or not. If not, I will have to wait until the next Training Exercises come  up. I plan to work on the application and studying this weekend and get it turned back into Ms. Brenda by next week. I am also a graduate of the Respect Institute where I have been able to share my recovery story. Of which, you are empowered by The Respect Institute and New Rock Day Services voluntary Program to share your recovery story with other Peers and with your community.

 

 

As the motto of the Fred Factor states How passion in your work and life can turn the ordinary into the extraordinary, I hope to do this for my peers in class and for my community.

I find that blogging has been especially helpful to me. It is so therapeutic for me and I enjoy sharing in my walk with my community. I have been blogging at Word Press for over two years now and at The Covington News for nearly 18 months. One of the online groups that I am a part of is Alpha 1 Antitrypsin Deficiency, of which I am a carrier for the genetic disease but never let it get in my way of life.

1. Why do you want to become a CPS Certified Peer Specialist?

2. What makes you a good candidate to work with other consumers in the mental health field?

3. What does recovery mean to you?

4.. What were some of the important factors in your own recovery?

5. What types of experiences have you had in working with consumers of mental health services? Please describe in detail, listing efforts in letter – writing, personal advocacy, public testimony, programs you began, or the work you are doing now. Be specific, such as advocating, self – help groups , community activities.

6. Why do you think it is important for CPS ‘s to tell their recovery stories?

7. What will be your most difficult challenge in attending the Certified Peer Specialist training? How will you deal with this challenge?

8. Describe your current employment situation (or volunteer situation) If neither applies, how do you spend your time?

9. Is there anything else you would like us to know in considering you for the Certified Peer Specialist training?

http://www.gacps.org/

My Covington News blog has been on display at Arts in The Garden in Decatur and at The Porter Memorial Library, Covington Branch.

I have been truly blessed to have my work on display and feel that I have achieved a very high goal I had set for myself in the past.

With attending the voluntary classes at New Rock through View Point Health and studying for my CPS Certification along with having my works on display in the state, I am so pleased that a very high goal I had set for myself has been achieved through my hard work and persistence to succeed.

 

As I work in the supportive employment room on studying and reading, I see the framed art above my head that lists those with mental illness that have enriched our lives.

http://www.nami.org > famous people >

“People with Mental Illness Enrich Our Lives”

Famous people throughout history who have had a serious mental illness

 

Abraham Lincoln

The revered sixteenth President of the United States suffered from severe and incapacitating depressions that occasionally led to thoughts of suicide, as documented in numerous biographies by Carl Sandburg.

 

Virginia Woolf

The British Novelist who wrote To the Lighthouse and Orlando experienced the mood swings of bipolar disorder characterized by feverish periods of writing and weeks immersed in gloom.  Her story is discussed in The Dynamics of Creation by Anthony Storr.

 

Lionel Aldridge

A defensive end for Vince Lombardi’s legendary Green Bay Packers of the 1960’s, Aldridge played in two Super Bowls.  In the 1970’s, he suffered from schizophrenia and was homeless from two and a half years.  Until his death in 1988, he gave inspirational talks on his battle against paranoid schizophrenia.  His story is the story of numerous newspaper articles.

 

Eugene O’Neill

The famous playwright, author of A Long Day’s Journey and Ah! Wilderness! , suffered from clinical depression, as documented in Eugene O’Neill by Olivia Coolidge.

 

Ludwig van Beethoven

The brilliant composer experienced bipolar disorder, as documented in The Key to Genius: Manic Depression and the Creative Life by D. Jablow Hershman and Julian Lieb.

 

Gaetano Donizetti

The famous opera singer suffered from bipolar disorder, as documented in Donizetti and the World Opera in Italy, Paris, and Vienna in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century by Herbert Weinstock.

 

Leo Tolstoy

Author of War and Peace, Tolstoy revealed the extent of his own mental illness in the memoir Confession.  His experiences is also discussed in The Dynamics of Creation by Anthony Storr, and The Inner World of Mental Illness: A Series of First Accounts of What It Was Like by Bert Kaplan.

 

Vaslov Nijinsky

The dancers battle with schizophrenia is documented in his autobiography, The Diary of Vaslov Nijinsky.

 

John Keats

The renowned poet’s mental illness is documented in The Dynamics of Creation by Anthony Storr and The Broken Brain: The Biological Revolution in Psychiatry by Nancy Andreasen, M.D.

 

Tennessee Williams

The playwright gave a personal account of his struggle with clinical depression in his own Memoirs. His experience is also documented in Five O’clock Angel: Letters of Tennessee Williams to Maria St. Just, 1948-1982; The Kindness of Strangers: The Life of Tennessee Williams by Donald Spoto, and Tennessee: Cry of the Heart by Dotson.

 

Vincent Van Gogh

The celebrated artist’s bipolar disorder is discussed in The Key to Genius: Manic Depression and the Creative Life by D. Jablow Hershman and Julian Lieb and Dear Theo, The Autobiography of Van Gogh.
Isaac Newton

The scientist’s mental illness is discussed in The Dynamics of Creation by Anthony Storr and the Key to Genius: Manic Depression and the Creative Life by D. Jablow Hershman and Julian Lieb.

 

Ernest Hemmingway

The Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist’s suicidal depression is examined in the True Gen: An Intimate Portrait of Ernest Hemmingway by Those Who Know Him by Dennis Brian.

 

Sylvia Plath

The poet and novelist ended her lifelong struggle with clinical depression by taking her own life, as reported in A Closer Look at Ariel: A Memory of Sylvia Plath by Nancy Hunter-Steiner.

 

Michelangelo

The mental illness off of one of the world’s greatest artistic geniuses is discussed inThe Dynamics of Creation, by Anthony Storr.

 

Winston Churchill

“Had he been a stable and equable man, he could never have inspired the nation.  In 1940, when all the odds were against Britain, a leader of sober judgment might well have concluded that we were finished, “ wrote Anthony Storr about Churchill’s bipolar disorder in Churchill’s Black Dog, Kafka’s Mice, and Other Phenomena of the Human Mind.

 

Vivien Leigh

The Gone with the Wind star suffered from mental illness, as documented in Vivien Leigh: A Biography by Ann Edwards

 

 

Patty Duke

The Academy Award-winning actress told of her bipolar disorder in her autobiography and made-for-TV movie Call me Anna and A Brilliant Madness: Living with Manic-Depressive Illness, co-authored by Gloria Hochman.

 

Charles Dickens

 

One of the greatest authors in the English language suffered from clinical depression, as documented in The Key to Genius: Manic Depression and the Creative Life by D. Jablow Hershman a

Recovery through the Arts

Recovery through the Arts

My Covington News blog will be on display at Recovery through the Arts at Porter Memorial Branch Library Covington, Ga. May 15th from 5:30 – 7:30

Light refreshments will be served.

Participating Programs include: New Rock Day Services, GRAN Recovery, Newton Outpatient Services, Independent Enterprises.

You may join me in the last 18 months of my life at my Covington News blog.

The Respect Institute hopeful for meeting with Honorable Samuel D. Ozburn of the Alcovy Judicial Circuit Mental Health Court System

I have found that studying for my CPS (Certified Peer Specialist) Certification is very challenging. I am a graduate of Dekalb Technical College receiving dual awards in 2002 of The Business/Legal Office diploma and Paralegal Fundamentals. I am currently taking classes through New Rock Day Services Treatment Center and it is a part of my maintenance plan that  I study the CPS Manuals. I am grateful to Ms. Brenda Williams for helping me through this period. I attended Newton County schools my entire life. From Ficquett Elementary, Sharp Middle, Newton High and Dekalb Technical Covington Campus and am now a student of New Rock and hope to obtain my CPS certification in my very near future.

I have became close with the GMHCN (Georgia Mental Health Consumer Network), New Rock, View Point Health and The Respect Institute. All of which encourage you to share your story of recovery and inspire others to share their recovery stories. As I posted over the weekend, The Respect Institute is wanting to set up a meeting with Honorable Samuel Ozburn given the fact that he will be heading up and presiding over the Alcovy Judicial Circuit Mental Health Court system. I have made many friends and have such wonderful mentors who are seeing me through my recovery process. It is a voluntary program that I choose to attend each day and I am allowed to teach classes to my fellow peers and gain insight into their lives and share mine with them during the classes I teach. I enjoy teaching and directing classes as it is most therapeutic for me.

I completed my internship with Esquire Mr. John Strauss, Sr., of The Newton County Public Defender’s Office and I also worked as a Juvenile Probation Officer for The South West Key program under Probation Officer, Travis Bell direction.

I am hoping to set up a meeting between The Respect Institute and Honorable Samuel D. Ozburn in the very near future. If interested you may view the ins and outs of a CPS by visiting : http://www.gacps.org/Home.html

You may also visit The Respect Institute at : http://respectinternational.org

I hope to be able to set up a meeting with Alfred Brooks, Jen Banathy and Mr. Joel Slack of The Respect Institute with Honorable Samuel Ozburn.

I met Ms. Jen Banathy at St. Simons Island during a convention and seminar last September at St. Simons and we have became close friends and she is part of my encouragement team. Encouraging me forward and to pursue my newest dream of obtaining my CPS (Certified Peer Specialist) Certification. She is an amazing mentor and very dear friend. Ms. Banathy is a CPS as well who is in her recovery process state too. Becoming a CPS requires you have a background and diagnosis of a mental illness and you are in your recovery process. You may read more on becoming a CPS at http://www.gacps.org/Home.html

This has been a very challenging and trying time of my recovery. It has been so many years since I attended college and now here I am again studying to obtain my CPS Certification and feel somewhat overwhelmed, hoping that this feeling will subside.

Honorable Ozburn is familiar with my recovery story and I am in hopes of organizing a meeting between him and The Respect Institute this spring and/ or summer when he is available to meet with The Respect Institute team. I think that Honorable Ozburn would benefit greatly from meeting with the team of The Respect Institute, especially, given he will be heading up The Mental Health Court system of The Alcovy Judicial Circuit. I am proud to have been asked by the team of The Respect Institute to try and organize and arrange this meeting. I am very proud of this fact and will try my best to hopefully make this meeting happen.

I was raised with unconditional values towards love and life and learned so much more on humanity from Esquire Mr. John Strauss, Sr., being his very first intern. I was able to graduate Dekalb Tech and received an “A” plus grade from Mr. Strauss. I often reach into my past experiences with him and apply them to my everyday life, hoping that I will touch others as he touched my life. Hoping to pass onward humanity for all. Humanity for self – help and other’s has proven very rewarding in my life.

Today I am reading The Five Stages of The Recovery Process and would like to share in my blog these 5 Steps.

Onset of Illness – the person is disabled by the symptoms of the illness. The task is to decrease the emotional distress by reducing the symptoms.

Life is Limited – The person is not ready to make a commitment to change. The task is to instill hope, a sense of possibility, and to rebuild a positive self – image.

Change is Possible – The person is beginning to believe that his/her life can be different. The task is to empower the person to participate in his/her recovery by beginning to take small steps.

Commitment to Change – The person is willing to explore what it will take to make some changes. The task is to help the person identify his/her strengths and needs in terms of skills, resources and supports.

Actions for Change – The person is willing to take responsibility for his/her actions. The task is to help the person use his / her strengths and to get the necessary skills, resources and supports.

Peer Support is a culture of healing.

Peer Support is a person in the know helping another person be in the know.

Peer Support is interaction between a healer and those who need healing.

Peer Support is help given to those in need by another who has gone through a similar trauma or challenge.

Peer Support is learning from someone who has been there and done that.

When I see how much you have overcome to get to where you are today, I know you are a walking miracle.

At New Rock Day services Program of study I am in the “Peer Support” group and teach classes to my Peers each week.

I would love to have Honorable Samuel Ozburn speak with The Respect Institute and become closer with View Point Health formerly known as GRN.

I hope to arrange this meeting in the very near future and will be blogging of my efforts as time goes on.

Remember to keep humanity at the heart of all you do and you too can bare good fruits as I have and pray daily that I continue with a good and strong walk.

 

Happy Mother’s Day Mom, my Angels

A Southern Steel Magnolia for your Mother’s Day

All ladies are “Steel Magnolia’s” in my book and in my heart. Reminding myself today that I am a “Steel Magnolia”, I feel strong and steadfast on most day’s but on a day like today, (Mother’s Day) I feel very weak and very low. I have lost my mother several years ago at such an early age for her to pass. So I grieve for the loss of my mother and for the loss of life that was shared between me and my four daughter’s. I am so very happy to have my son wish me A Happy Mother’s Day. He has been so concerned of me and wanting me to have  a good day today.

The GMHCN (Georgia Mental Health Consumer Network), New Rock day services Program, View Point Health and The Respect Institute all teach you to share your story and to empower yourself by telling your story to others so that they may gain strength from your life’s story.

I miss the love that was shared between myself and four daughter’s for ever ten year’s. My life has seen much success n the Court room, but I still have no relationship with my youngest daughter. We are in a reunification process that is taking its time for us to progress back into our relationship.

With being taught to share my story. I often reflect back and share. If you have been a follower of my blogs at Word Press and The Covington News, you know that I have been missing my daughter’s and want to continue to bare good fruits. To share or not to share is a question at hand. I am taught day in and day out to empower myself and other’s by sharing my story of failure to recovery. The Lord our God has made a message out of my mess, and I am ever so grateful that I can lean on the Lord for guidance, love and mercy.

The Respect Institute of Georgia would like to speak with Honorable Ozburn given the fact that he is heading up The Newton County and Alcovy Judicial Circuit Mental Health Court. The Respect Institute has asked me to see if I can possibly arrange a meeting between The Respect Institute and Honorable Samuel Ozburn. I will be following up with this request from The Respect Institute in the very near future.

I am so blessed to have the wonderful, caring mentors of the New Rock Day Services program that enrich my life everyday.

Remember, all of us Mother’s are Steel Magnolia’s who must remain strong and steadfast even in light of depression, stress or loss of life that includes the grieving process. You can reach a level of success and recovery that I have by being committed and devoted to the betterment of your soul and life.

I will have a follow up blog RE: The Respect Institute of Georgia and the Alcovy Judicial Circuit Court’s Georgia Mental Health Court. Hopefully being able to contribute to The Respect Institute the good fruits that I have been blessed to bare and reflect upon.

Steel Magnolias are the breath of life. You, ladies and Mother’s are the breath of life, the breath of life that breathes humanity and goodness. Putting loveliness and kindness in each person’s life you cross. May you have a blessed and holy day today.