The Butterfly Effect

 The Butterfly Effect

Katya
didn't speak
for a long time.

The Time Machine
hummed
softly,
waiting.

Tiki
finally asked,

"So...

what now?"

Katya
opened
another file.

Not
a birth.

Not
a childhood.

A college campus.

Autumn.

Students
hurried
through rain,
coffee cups
and backpacks
everywhere.

A younger Gina
laughed
with friends.

Across the quad...

Anthony.

Still
a stranger.

Katya
zoomed in.

Not
their first date.

Not
their wedding.

The first
five seconds.

The moment
their eyes
would meet.

"So,"
Tiki said,

"you aren't
changing Gina."

Katya
shook her head.

"I'm changing
a choice."

She watched
the timeline.

Anthony
turned.

Gina
looked up.

History
leaned forward.

Katya
pressed

one key.

A cyclist,
running late,
sped
between them.

"Sorry!"

The bicycle
blocked
their view
for barely
two seconds.

Anthony
kept walking.

Gina
never saw him.

She stopped
instead

at a campus bulletin board.

A flyer
caught her eye.

Volunteer Needed
for the Animal Shelter.

She smiled.

"I've always
wanted
to do that."

She pulled
off
the tab.

The timeline

shivered.

Not violently.

Not angrily.

Like
a sigh.

Days later,

Gina
met people
who loved
animals.

Months later,

she adopted
an elderly dog
nobody else wanted.

Years later,

she laughed
in a home
filled with warmth
instead of fear.

No shouting.

No bruises.

No walking
on eggshells.

Anthony
lived
an entirely
different life,

never knowing
the woman
he almost met.

Katya
watched
the future
settle.

No paradox.

No collapse.

Just...

a different path.

Tiki
looked
at the glowing timeline.

"So that's it?"

Katya
smiled
for the first time

in days.

"No."

"What is it?"

"I didn't
rewrite
who Gina was."

She watched
the older Gina
laugh
without flinching

at sudden noises.

"I just made sure
the worst person
she would ever meet...

remained
a stranger."

#BUSY

They all mean well

they are just busy.

Don’t you love that word

#BUSY?

It’s the #trending excuse for not prying.

To answer one of your many questions and address your

temporary state of un-busyness;

I am happy with my choices

finally.

Yes, life is short

and winter is fast approaching

and twill be cold outside

in the frigid North.

Thankfully, I am not homeless

or penniless

or winter would be dreadful indeed.

Got to run now

I am  #busy.

Steps to Sanity cont.

The fifth step is Forgiveness

Forgiveness is another form of detachment.

Addiction is a family disease. There is no getting around it. It’s in our DNA. Although some people think that we are at the mercy of our genes, our environment and our upbringing, I strongly disagree. It is a CHOICE. Sooner or later, no matter how you interpret it; it is time to GROW UP.

Addiction is a CHOICE that we make on a daily basis, nothing more and nothing less.

But let me ask you, for the sake of argument, if your family had Cancer or Alzheimer’s would you be mad at them? Of course not, you would do everything in your power to be supportive, to make them as comfortable as possible and to show them how much you love them.

Addiction is a little trickier though, because of the stigma attached to it.  We love them but our thinking has become distorted and so we end up showing our love in inappropriate and unhealthy ways.

Todays’ reminder from Al-Anon’s Courage to Change ©1992

Every time I try to tighten the noose of resentment around someone’s neck, I am really choking myself. Today I will practice forgiveness instead.

“You can’t hold a man down without staying down with him.”~ Booker T. Washington