There is a place nestled deep in the Shenandoah Valley, way off the interstate; a tiny hamlet with it's peaceful little main street and single traffic light. Hundred year-old homes with chimneys and porch swings line it's small stretch. On any given autumn morning, it’s quiet enough to hear a squirrel jump branches, or a backyard dog bark. Proudly in its midst stands the artisan boutique, existing longer than any old-timer can remember- With its display of pottery and watercolor paintings, and crafts created by local artists. The owner, a soft-spoken grandma with country elegance and a grey ponytail will cheerfully offer you an apple ...picked from her orchard, for you to nibble on while browsing her shelves overflowing with offerings.  This is quite the opposite of Amazon. *Which is why* ...if you happen to be a touring leaf-peeper visiting Massanutten Mountain, a wandering driver from Skyline Drive, or maybe even someone lucky enough to live there... A full week before Amazon...

Yesterday transcended typical earthly human interaction. The moment I opened my eyes next to my S.O. on her birthday I knew in my gut things would unfold in a way beyond my mortal comprehension. I rolled to face her, wished her a her a happy one, and got up to go on my on my usual morning run. My pace seemed far swifter than normal. I got back, showered, and suited up for her late uncle's funeral. We had to take separate cars and I ended up driving her 17 year-old son to the church. It was our first time "hanging out" together and we were able to make a nice connection, chatting the entire drive. Good kid....smart, mature, vegan...would make a great match for Hannah... I had met her uncle alive only once, about three weeks prior when we dropped off the kitten I had rescued to give to her cousins. He seemed a nice man, an honest salt-of the earth fellow who spent 50 years in the steamfitters' union and was a member of the local VFW and Moose lodge. At the church mass I...

It's been almost two years since I have been two years sober. An excerpt from Chapter 5, "Five Minutes Before the Miracle," details what I was thinking in a meeting, just before receiving my chip: “My sober network, my sponsors, and God could now assist me in life’s decisions for this day because I was letting them in. I was no longer sacrificing my here moments to panicky, egoic future thinking, frantically chasing after decisions that did not yet need to be made because they were the product of some imagined future. I finally began to allow God and people to inspire me to calmly make only the decisions that needed my attention in the moment . This was an epic shift in thinking for me. I was now strolling and breathing instead of sprinting and gasping through life. It was an imperfect miracle, if such things exist. I had not yet completely rid myself of the self-pity or ego character defects. Hannah, Robert, and Toby’s estrangement from me continued to weigh heavily, t...

I r ecently rediscovered TV after months of not even turning my set on. The show that has currently hooked my attention, and that I recently began to binge watch, has been Shameless with William H. Macy and Joan Cusack, about a big dysfunctional family living and struggling in Chicago’s rough South Side. It is a hybrid of drama and dark comedy. Both the character of Frank Gallagher as well as the narrative holds true to the show’s name- each episode is saturated with drugs, violence, and gratuitous fucking (too much, in my opionion, even for a Showtime original). Macy does a great job portraying an alcoholic deadbeat, good-for-nothing, scheming drunk who is completely inept as a father. What the viewer can also glean is that even through his stumbling, bumbling ways, Frank is smart - he seems to eloquently lie and scheme his way into money, sex, and his family’s attention, waxing poetic to get what he wants most of the time. His character both resonates and alarms me, and as I watch hi...

So...another advanced book review came in over the weekend. This one is written by therapist Michael Pond and his partner Maureen Palmer, co-authors of the memoir Wasted . This review is different from other positive reviews I have received  (for those of you who knew me from “before” you may agree with a certain line the blurb; I know I do 😉...): “In the crowded addiction memoir field JD Remy’s story is a stand-out.   Be prepared to dislike the man when you first meet him. But as he proceeds through recovery, Remy cultivates an ongoing relationship with pain with rare grace & elegance.  There’s an aching poignancy to his prose. You find yourself not only liking him, but rooting for him.”          —Maureen Palmer & Michael Pond Whoa. Couldn’t have written it better myself 😮

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08GM6PRBT

Titi  me  maryaj ,  maryaj  la  mizerab Manmanm   mouri   maladi ,  papam   mouri   maladi Mayiango   eya ,  mayiango   fe   woch   mache . Ooo   ooo   mayiango   fe   woch   mache   (This is the  wedding,  the wedding is miserable. My mother dies from the sickness, my dad dies from the sickness. Mayiango  makes the rock move.) – Haitian children’s folk  song Excerpt from Chapter 10: “Resentment, Fear, and Pain”   Night had fallen and the compound was quiet. The church was locked up, clinic finished for the day, and I was relaxing in the  clear Haitian  night air with the orphans. We were all together, in the dirt under the illuminated heavens, chanting the grim children’s folk song. The game we played  while singing it  involved squatting in a circle and passing small stones in  cadence  with the song’s rhythm, left   to ...

  Pasties and Tassels?? *No, this is not a blog post about some vodka-infused Vegas immorality tour.😮 Yesterday was pretty exciting. Despite my state of semi-lucidity from being between night shifts at the  Cave , I was still  energized enough to get word out through social media that  Ballad  went live for pre-orders on Amazon and other booksellers. The response was amazing, and frankly, quite humbling. So...thank you!  My humility and my ego are currently in fisticuffs-  🤼‍♀️🕺😌🕺😌🤼‍♂️ As an added incentive to those who might be sitting on the fence, for those who pre-order I want to throw in a bonus...📣”If you act now," and pull the trigger on purchasing the book in advance of the release date, I will send you some   SWAG! 🤗:     1. A custom-designed bookplate**, signed by yours truly, to stick on the book's inside cover, thereby personalizing your copy     2. A cool freakin' bookmark (or two) to use as you read...

 My essay, “Legacy of the Plague” was  published today in Physicians’ Weekly Online Journal.  https://www.physiciansweekly.com/legacy-of-the-plague/

  Another positive review by an established author!🕺😁 This one came in from Georgea "Gigi" Langer, PhD.  Professor, motivational speaker, and author of the award-winning 50 Ways to Worry Less Now , she not only provided me the encouraging review below, but actively critiqued my writing as she read through the manuscript, providing powerful suggestions on-the-fly as to how to make Ballad  an even better read. She even convinced me to remove an entire chapter- an impressive feat, considering my stubborn ways!  So give it up for Gigi...and read her truly inspiring book! "After reading an advance copy of JD's book, I’m amazed by its quality, expressiveness and honesty. The language is so vivid that it reads like a novel, and I could not put it down. If you were going to offer a book on alcoholism to anyone struggling with the disease, I would highly recommend this one. It is more comprehensive and entertaining than any other book of its nature."     ...

 A few years back I read author and comedienne Linda Lou's book Bastard Husband: A Love Story  and adored it. As I soaked up (and sometimes laughed through) her  beautifully written prose, Linda's accounts of the codependent relationship with her dysfunctional alcoholic spouse resonated strongly with me and my own situation.  I couldn't help but feel I shared some of her ex’s  deeply-rooted character flaws, as I suspect many of us addictive personalities do.  Now that my own book is on the verge of release, Linda has been kind enough to read Ballad  and provide a review: A compelling story, eloquently written In this heartbreaking yet inspiring memoir, J. D. Remy captures the fear and emotional volatility resulting when a slow progression of alcohol abuse finally implodes. As an emergency room physician dedicated to saving the lives of others, he confronts the ultimate challenge when he’s faced with saving his own. Peppered with wry humor, Remy recount...

Excerpt from Chapter 9, which made it onto KevinMD, medical social media site! https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2020/08/a-sober-emergency-physician-returns-to-work-just-in-time-to-face-the-covid-19-pandemic.html#comments