Beware the barrenness of a busy life.—Socrates

Welcome to the inaugural edition of Sidebar, the Lawyer Assistance Program’s e-newsletter. The goal of the Sidebar is to better connect with our volunteers, clients and State Bar leaders and staff. Read More

Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less. It applies not only to recovery, but to law practice as well. Read More

You live on adrenalin. Health problems develop from the stress. Your personal life, if you have one, suffers. Problems of alcohol and depression are rampant in our subset of the legal profession. After two decades, a public defender asks, "Is it worth it?" Read More

A Decade of The Blues - One Man is Not Alone when he has Friends. Read More

Read Article from CNN

Read Article from CNN

At the Pace of What is Real

Stop talking, stop thinking,
And there is nothing you will not understand.
   -Seng-Ts’an

Like most people I know, I struggle with taking too much on, with doing too many things, with moving too fast, with overcommitting, with overplanning. I’ve learned that I must move, quite simply, at the pace of what is real. While this pace may vary, life always seems vacant and diminished when I accelerate beyond my capacity to feel what is before me.

It seems we run our lives like trains, speeding along a track laid down by others, going so fast that what we pass blurs on by. Then we say we’ve been there, done that. The truth is that blurring by something is not the same as experiencing it.

So, no matter how many wonderful opportunities come my way, no matter the importance placed on these things by others who have my best interests at heart, I must somehow find a way to slow down the train that is mine until what I pass by is again seeable, touchable, feel-able. Otherwise, I will pass by everything – can put it all on my résumé – but will have experienced and lived through nothing.

• Consider three things you must do today.
• Carefully put two down.
• Immerse yourself in the one thing that is left.