Posted by Kathleen Pooler/@kathypooler

I am honored to be over at Janet Givens’ blog this week with a guest post. Janet is writing a PeaceCorps memoir, At Home on the Kazakh Steppe” about her time in Kazakhstan. She wrote about the challenges of writing a Peace Corps memoir  in this guest post.

As she  loves to point out, cultural differences, are all around us.  And those that cause her to gasp and yell, “Oh, no” are among her favorites.

Janet says, “depending upon where and how we grew up, the ways in which we view the world — even among Americans — can vary tremendously.  What we see as  right and wrong, good and bad, fun or not, are moderated by what we came to believe was “normal.”

“How we maneuver across these borders — from disparate mindsets on ways (and what) to eat, how we treat our parents in their later years, and myriad other issues now doting the cultural landscape”  —  is the focus of  her blog.

“Ideas on when to let go and accept or when to stand firm seem to have become one of my life’s purposes.”

Today I tell my story of maneuvering across the “border” that separated me from my alcoholic son.  I offer nine steps that helped bring me from the insanity that living with an alcoholic loved one brings, to the serenity I enjoy today.

As Janet says, “cultural differences can be broadly interpreted.”

Here’s the link to my guest post on Janet’s blog: “From Insanity to Serenity.”

 

We’d love to hear from you in either or both places. I hope you’ll stop over at Janet’s blog and leave a comment~

 

 

Next Week:

Monday, 2/17/14: “8 Tips for Being Kind and Gentle When Writing Memoir by Ken Myers”