The Project:: A story of addictions overcome by faith

By L.B. French

The Project" delves into the journey of overcoming addictions through faith. Follow the protagonist as he navigates through a troubled childhood, marked by self-doubt and addiction to marijuana. Despite facing numerous challenges in his teenage and adult years, in

• Language: English
• Publisher: Book Marketeers
• Release date: Apr 15, 2024
• ISBN: 9798869322258

Book preview

The Project:

A story of addictions overcome by faith

By

LB FRENCH

Text Duane Noriyuki, on behalf of Story Terrace

Design Grade Design and Adeline Media

Copyright © LB French Second print September 2019

www.StoryTerrace.com

Table of Contents

THE GRATEFUL DEAD

ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH AND LOW

GROWING UP: A BOY WITHOUT A NAME

FOOTBALL

RUGBY

OUR LOVE STORY

ATLANTA AND BACK

THE DEAL

SEDONA

The Shaman

The Psychic

Breathing

Final Day

CONFESSIONS

1

THE GRATEFUL DEAD

M

y life can best be described in sounds. Laughter, cries, prayers, the sound of a referee’s whistle, the rush of a snowboard’s edge in deep Colorado powder. So, what better place to begin my story than with the sounds of the timeless, inspirational rock’n’roll of The Grateful Dead.

On July 14, 2018, my wife and I were on our way from our home in Frisco, Colorado, to Boulder to see the Grateful Dead & Co., an offshoot of the original band. In my mind they were never the same after Jerry Garcia died in 1995, but he left behind a legacy, an entire culture, based upon his music and persona.

I have seen the Dead more than 125 times during the past 25 years. My first show was in 1979 in Baltimore. Over the years, memories of those concerts have melded into a haze; but on that day, basking in the comradery of over 14,000 kindred Dead Heads, I saw with virgin eyes and listened with virgin ears. For the first time, I was seeing them without being stoned.

I am 58 years old. I smoked marijuana every day for 42 years. Up until a year ago, it was my life’s remote control. I could switch it on and off, pause, change channels, mute. Marijuana was a part of everything I did. It was my best friend, and it went everywhere I went. It was part of everything I did, and it controlled when I did it. It was who I was and a staple in my life that ended up nearly destroying my marriage of 26 years.

The concert was part of my awakening, my sobriety. It tested my resolve because I figured that if I could go to a Dead concert without being stoned, I was probably going to be OK. We had been to Folsom Field to see the Dead a few times, and we always sat in the same area on the east side, facing west. As we took our seats, I was amazed as I looked down at the stadium and saw the huge cloud of smoke rising to the sky. Everybody was smoking.

It’s hard to see a cloud if you’re in one, so I never stopped to wonder how much marijuana was a part of a Dead concert. I thought it was part of the creed, and that getting high was a required Grateful Dead state of impairment, but it turned out that wasn’t the case at all. Because tonight straight, I felt more alive, more in tune than ever during that concert. I didn’t know how life could have been more beautiful. But then I witnessed the sun setting over the Rocky Mountains, and I swore I could hear Jerry.

We attended the concert with some friends who were in their mid-twenties. One of them was the oldest son of a rugby buddy from back east. Rugby changed my life in the way that unexpected moments like tonight. Come along at the exact point in time you need them. The first time I stepped onto the pitch I felt the sport’s flow, its demand for intelligence, fitness, and teamwork. It was like finding a home. I played for over twenty years then coached for another fifteen-plus years.

Rugby love transcends generations. In my life, the sport became a conduit for friendship, careers, and even love. I belonged on the pitch as much as I belonged in Folsom Field that night, singing, dancing, and celebrating a new life.

During the concert, one of our young friends said, You two are the coolest couple my girlfriend and I have ever seen. We hope that our future can be as happy and fun and successful and cool as yours.

My wife and I looked at each other choking back laughter. He knew nothing about what we had just gone through over the last year, how terribly bad our lives were just a short period of time before, and how we worked fiercely to save our marriage.

It’s a wonderful sound—laughter. When the laughter dies, as it did with us, it leaves behind a void that often cannot be occupied by anything other than heartbreak, doubt, and regret; but when laughter returns, it rings truer than before, more authentic, and spontaneous.

Maybe that’s what it came down to when we lay with eyes closed and no air left in our lungs. We stopped laughing. We could have walked away from each other, which is what most couples would have done. We could have left the void unfilled, but we chose not to. And our reward was a sunset in Boulder, leading to the excitement of darkness, a different kind of darkness, one that doesn’t settle beneath the skin.

"Someday life will be sweet like a rhapsody

When I paint my masterpiece."

It’s a Bob Dylan song covered by the Dead. The lyrics meant more that night than ever before. My masterpiece is a love story reflecting barriers faced and my pot addiction I was able to overcome. What saved our marriage was a four-day retreat in Sedona, where our lives, individually and as a couple, were examined from the perspective of a shaman, psychic, marriage counselors, psychiatrists, healers, a guide referred to as our angel, and God.

Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth. That could be Jerry talking, but it’s not. It’s a Buddhist quote that has given us insight and direction. It’s helped us recognize the importance of giving and nurturing truth in a relationship, no matter how painful it might be. Truth is a gift that we all deserve.

If truth and love made sounds, they would come from my wife’s guitar and the songs she writes and sings. They tell stories from her heart, which I have broken numerous times in various ways. I try to trust that I will never do it to her again.

There’s one more sound that explains how, after so much turmoil, we were able to forgive each other and move forward as a team. You might think I’m crazy.

But one day while I was walking my dog Kimba, the voices returned.

Grateful Dead, Stanley Mouse Copyright 1989

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2

ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH AND LOW

F

risco, Colorado, is a mountain town of fewer than 3,000 residents in the heart of Colorado Ski Country.

It is within a short drive to Breckenridge, Keystone, Vail, Copper Mountain, Arapahoe Basin, and other skiing and wildlife