On the Couch with CA

I suppose I could go on and on about how Romeo and Juliet fell in love and then tragically died - but that is not how this story ended (and thankfully so). The story does however come to an abrupt ending (well so I think) when we realised that even though we love each other, there are just too many "hurdles"  to take into account. We could so easily have continued to see each other behind closed doors, but that is not the ingredients for a honest relationship.  And although I cannot speak for the other party ( Romeo ), I can say that for a brief moment in my life I knew and still know what it feels like to love someone and be loved by that person in return. One suddenly feels alive to all kinds of possibilities that we only tend to dream about.  When he checked into rehab for alcohol abuse almost three months after we met I immediately picked up the pen and started to write.  I had decided that I would write to him about what I was doing while he was in reha...

After finally sorting out where he knew me from and getting some chit-chat out of the way, he started his life story with me with the following words: "I told my mother I am getting divorced again, and her response was - 'don't worry my son you will find your soul-mate' ".   And did the caution lights start flickering violently in my head when I hear him say this.  'Again' – what does he mean 'again' ? Turns out that he is married for the second time.  So I immediately say "Please do not tell me your wife is to be blamed." "No, it is all my fault, I am to be blamed" he says.  Well that is very brave of him to admit I think to myself.  Usually guys are wanting to look for sympathy from a "potential victim" .   But here was a man willing to admit he is the one in the wrong.  This was the start of our conversation on the evening we met in the pub when I should have gone straight home.  I decided not ...

Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life; Whose misadventured piteous overthrows Do with their death bury their parents' strife. The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love, And the continuance of their parents' rage, Which, but their children's end, nought could remove, Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage; The which if you with patient ears attend, What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.  So you have read the start of how "Romeo and Juliet" met.  And from the messages I have received through Facebook, I gather you want to hear more about how these two end up. I would like to warn you that this is not a story for the faint-hearted.  Especially, if you have found yourself, in our shoes.  Some of y...

It is hard to believe that it would take an alcoholic less than 28 days to help me realise that I could feel and experience love.  It was the evening of the 6 th of December 2011 and some persistent voice was telling me to get off the train and to drag myself into the local pub on the corner.  So without any further debate with myself, I got off the train. I am not much of a drinker, but there I was hanging out in the pub chatting to a friend when next best thing I hear a voice from across the room say, "I know you" .  Yes, right, here in a pub and you know me, what a pick-up line I think to myself.  I give the bloke a stare and before I can say anything he says "You were at the same school as me".  Oh God! he just does not stop – another pick-up line.  What is he trying to achieve, when I never even attended any co-head schools, so he is clearly off his trolley.  Then without giving up, trying to get my attention, he says "you are from the same...

Behind the mask of a clown lives a person who sometimes chooses to forsake their own happiness in order to make others happy. Clowns will spend their days behaving like, what others will refer to as "total idiots",  yet be the most brilliant of minds.  It takes great courage to make a "fool" of one's self when you know that you are alive to what is going on around you.  Sometimes we need some crazy people in our lives to remind us that we are not alone when we do feel a bit out of it.  It is said that it is crazy people who think they can change the world and who actually do. Clowns have the ability to do just that.  They make us laugh when we feel down and help us forget all the troubles that cloud our daily lives. There have been many times I have been referred to as a clown. Even though I do not wear a painted mask or have a red nose and wear funny clothes (or perhaps I do wear funny clothes), I have discovered that I do wear a mask.  I ...