Becoming a Writer in Sobriety
Leslie Johansen Nack got sober, raised a family, and graduated from UCLA at 31 before she began writing. Telling the truth in her Fourth Step became the foundation for her memoir and the books that fo…
Topic
Creativity and Art
Art, music, writing, and making things — creativity as part of a recovering life. Stories of musicians, drummers, writers, and photographers who use their work as both expression and recovery.
21 stories
The Power of the Pen
Sick, isolated, and numb, Carole Fontaine bought a journal and started going to a meditation class. The practice brought her back to wellness, and it held again through breast cancer.
Full Circle of Light
Leslie Johansen Nack is an award-winning author, married 35 years to David. They recently shared their sobriety stories at a treatment center, as a sober couple once did for her almost 40 years ago.
Tim Sample: Finding Peace in the Unknown
Maine humorist Tim Sample has nearly 30 years in recovery. Now approaching 75, he recently retired after thousands of shows. Recovery taught him to rest in the unknown and accept life as it is.
Cameron Obremski
Cameron Obremski's cat Belle runs and hides whenever he raises his voice. Years into recovery, he realizes he's chasing away the love he's finally learning to accept. This musician's journey reveals h…
Drumming Up Wellness: Music Therapy’s Rhythmic Approach
Kate Beever sits behind a drum kit in her Maine office, ready to work. A client picks up mallets. Instead of talking directly about the stress that triggered their return to use, they express it throu…
Holistic Recovery: Blending Traditional & New Therapies
You're sitting with a horse, learning to brush its mane, when something shifts inside you. Holistic recovery combines traditional medical treatment with approaches like equine therapy, art, meditation…
The Writing of Recovery Allies
Alison Jones Webb trained young people in recovery to share their stories in church basements and school halls. When community members asked "What can we do to help?" she realized the answer: people n…
Stories Restoring Hope: Inked and Sober
Chris Bastey's clients book tattoo appointments years in advance for his bold, colorful work at Atlantic Studios in Rockland, Maine. Five years sober, he credits his art and a deliberate spiritual pra…
The Ahab Inside Me
A playwright learns his brother died from opiate addiction and reaches for what he knows: theater. Instead of seeking revenge against the disease, he stages plays that bring people with lived experien…
Stories Restoring Hope: Jim Mello
Jim Mello's Sunday sermons reach three Methodist churches, his poetry fills handwritten notebooks by the thousands, and his voice once hosted a college radio show. But it's his work as a substance use…
Small-town Filmmakers Provide a Way to Open Hearts, Change Perceptions
Small-town Filmmakers Provide a Way to Open Hearts, Change Perceptions
Music for Recovery
Carol stood in the pantry, headphones on, recording her voice for the first time. Thirty minutes later, she emerged and whispered, "I actually don't sound bad." Over six weeks, a guitar and a song bec…
Willa Wirth – A Force of Nature
Willa Wirth crafts silver pendants shaped like cresting waves and earrings that shimmer like moonlight. Her jewelry is instantly recognizable as masterwork. It's also the work of a woman in recovery w…
The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
One March morning in 2016, when life had become unbearable, she reached for a book gathering dust on her nightstand: The Artist's Way. Three pages of handwritten thoughts, no rules, no judgment. That…
Recovery Allies – Photographers
Joanne Arnold stands at dawn with men gathering around a fire circle at MaineWorks, camera in hand. She photographs people in early recovery, capturing moments of dignity and determination. Later, her…
Foster creativity. Become a more valuable employee. Grow your career.
A manager sits silent after a team member shares an idea. Another colleague jumps in immediately with something unrelated. The idea dies. This article shows how listening, curiosity, and genuine respe…
Louis Grassi
Louis Grassi, 32, loves his work as a peer recovery coach. He has not looked back in five years, and he fills his days with work, writing, music, family and friends.
Niki Curtis
Niki Curtis loves to make people laugh and give them hope. In recovery she took up running and painting, and on hard days she turns to helping someone else.
Transformed: Painter Eric Sorensen
Eric Sorensen pulls socks from his backpack to hand to people sleeping on Portland streets. Eleven years ago, he was one of them, pulling cardboard from dumpsters to survive. Today, he's a painter and…
Creative Expressions
Someone finds peace with hands in garden soil. Another unwinds rebuilding an engine. A third discovers calm while baking. Creative expression takes endless forms, and it's far more than art. It's how…