Have You Ever Thought About Those People in Your Life That Want to See You Succeed?

Create a list of all the people who want to see you succeed and why. Rupi Kaur Gratitude Writing Prompts.

How I got to where I am in life is mostly due to a few close family members:

My mother would be at the top of my list! She was my biggest cheerleader. She would help me with anything. When I needed a person to care for my children she was there, until my addiction got in the way and she threatened to turn me into child protection.

I knew she was serious. That was probably the most important thing as she cared enough for me and my children to not enable me to keep using. She and my dad were big on education. The further I could go and any way she could to help me to go further was what she did.

She thought Catholic schools had the best early education. And so she sacrificed to make sure my siblings and I attended Catholic school for the education we would receive.

My mother had a high school education and six kids. She went to school to be a secretary between my two youngest brothers. I think she wanted to see all of her children do well. Three of the six have college educations. The three others were successful in their careers also.

My sister Carrie was supportive and helpful in my life with whatever I was doing and she would follow in my footsteps. If I could graduate from BSU, so could she. If I could get a Masters degree, so could she.

If she was in a position to fight, she told me she would say to herself, "What would Denise do?" I was her big sister, three years older than her.

She helped me to fundraise with my positions early on. She was an artist and had many artist friends who would get on board if she was involved and participating.

Both my mother and my sister are now deceased. They died less than a year apart. That was a tough loss for me. I can keep going knowing that they support me in all that I do.

In my life today, I have friends, family, and my husband especially who continue to support what I am involved with. Recovery activity, working as a culture consultant, training others to work with Native American people.

Why are they interested in seeing me succeed? It is usually because it is also a passion or focus of my friends, family, and husband.

Then there is a yearly Poem a Day in February, decluttering, and the Team Carrie Powwow For Hope Fundraiser that is happening right now. My daughter is the biggest supporter of this project. Often making items to sell for the fundraiser and right by my side throughout.

The water ceremony at the Mississippi River in Grand Rapids, Minnesota every Sunday morning is another activity where I am involved. I recycle, reuse, repurpose, refuse (cut back on spending, especially for plastic, and don't take a straw), and I am considering rot (composting).

My stepdaughter asked me why I was promoting Water is Life when there are so many people dying from drugs and alcohol. In other words, why am I not putting my energy into that?

That was my job at the time, so I was working in that area. I also am in a recovery program that makes my life supportive of others in recovery. Today my stepdaughter is stuck in her addiction.

If I could have prevented that I would have. Sometimes it is easier to help others and someone else has to help your loved ones. I hate that. We can love and pray for our loved ones and work to not enable them.

The water thing was just beginning and I had heard in the late 70s how our water was in trouble. When I started attending the water ceremony in 2012, it was time and there weren't many people spreading the word. A few walks had happened.

Now there are so many more and younger women are stepping up, which is great. Yet they are all so supportive of their elders.

A woman at our water ceremony just talked about the 5 Rs for doing our part in saving the water. She said, to think of it as a pyramid with the bottom and most important being to refuse. Her example was floss picks. Imagine the plastic taking forever in the landfills to absorb.

I buy floss picks. Then I thought of how I use floss picks when driving. Will I use floss now? I don't know but I have given up straws after one of those women told me straws give you wrinkles around your mouth. The environment wasn't enough reason to give them up.

People I have trained even when on video during the pandemic, will come up to me and respond to a training I gave. It can be a difficult conversation at first as they know me but I don't know them.

At first, I thought, why don't I remember this person then they explained that they saw me on a video training through MARRCH or MAIIADS. Two counselor training programs. That is success and reason enough to keep doing what I am doing.

I believe in a kind and loving spirit as my God and I have the support of Creator God in all that I do. I fully expect to have a time when I can no longer do what I do and that is okay.

My latest messages about what I need to work on. Nothing easy. I was given the message to talk with professionals about addiction. I was talked to about starting an eating disorder meeting in the area I live in. For me and for others. I have supportive people to help me with both of these.

Because I mentioned these messages to two of the right people, I will have support to succeed, as they want to succeed too!

Years ago I helped build an alano building by being a board member. Years ago I helped start a Narcotics Anonymous meeting in the town I was living in. And many years ago I helped start an adult children of alcoholics support group.

Those groups are continuing some 40 years later in that community.

I have worked to bring the right replacement person to everything I did and continue to look for replacements with what I am doing now. I am looking for a replacement at the mental health crisis shelter where I have a weekly group.

I am working to find trainers that are dedicated to training on what I train on. The people currently doing this are older than me or a few years younger. We must have dedicated people to follow us when we can no longer provide this training. For this, we do Training for Trainers.

In addition, many people want to see me succeed on Medium and Vocal and other writers in groups on Facebook. Thank you!