Life is the ultimate teacher
it is usually through experiences
and not scientific research that we discover its deepest lessons.
We are all here for a single purpose,
to grow in wisdom
and to learn to love better.
We can do this by having
and not having,
by succeeding
or by failing.
All we need to do is to show up
open hearted for these classes.

Rachel Naomi Remen MD
Kitchen Table Wisdom

I'm praying to gods that I don't even know,
But I'm ready. I'm willing, where do I go ?

You push me away when I come near,
I'm scared of you Mummy dear.

I love you when you are here, I love you when you are not,
I wish I would talk to you, but I know that I can not.

I want to be able to talk to you . I want to talk face to face,
I want to have a mother, not an empty space.

Koali - NNAAMI member Australia, 19/5/97
Part Published in Melbourne Age
Recited at NNAAMI National Seminar

I am Vulnerable
I am sensitive
live is pain
how do we live ?
the task is too big
challenges
tax me
fight me
love me
some times I feel
it can never be done
futility lives
I see the light
then
the darkness
falls again
it is still there
look for the light I'll try again
I will never give up.

Betty Petterson NNAAMI member Australia

Searching Eyes
Questioning all corners of the room
in split seconds
brows which aspire
to the heights of the forehead
darting cool and some what
unsure fingers
examining the air around her
reassuring her doubtful mind
of the truth of her existence
seeing herself in the mirrors of others minds
she rarely believes her own
accepting her existence as a reflection
the haze rarely clears
the mirror is a glass
and her soul is bare
does she know that she is her own
for real.

Jannet Woititz
Adult Children of Alcoholics