I was a heroin addict the last time I walked the roads of this California beach town. I ruined my relationship with the girl of my dreams, but recently got a second chance to do it over.
While the town is outwardly beautiful, I worried about how I would react passing by, once again, the street corners and hang-outs that haunted my memory of this place.
My girlfriend, Jess, suggested that together we could transform these locations, by returning there with gifts and joyful hearts. We loaded up her truck with flowers to give away, bottles of water to hand out, and a stack of yellow paper with inspirational messages printed out for anyone who looked like they might need a new way of thinking about life.
The first stop confirmed the brilliance of this idea. We parked next to a small home where I previously bought dope. The mailbox was right next to the sidewalk, so we placed inside the inspiring motivational message, some flowers, and a personal note of forgiveness to let the man know how his dealing of heroin had affected one of his customers.
We said a prayer, lingered awhile kissing at the front gate, and when we turned to leave, my girlfriend exclaimed, “Look at those elephant ears! I used to grow those back in Florida.”
Then a woman’s voice came through the open front door saying, “You like my elephant ears?”
“Oh, yes,” replied Jess, who began to engage the kindhearted woman in chatter about gardening. The small yard was well-tended with a variety of tropical flowers and shrubs that she described for us.
“Do you want to take some home?
They are growing all over the place,” she said as she pointed…The post I Transformed Haunting Memories By Returning to Those Places With Gifts appeared first on FeedBox.