Margaret Lewis:  

Life 2005-Present My goodness, what a difference a handful of years makes. Looks like I came back to KY after all. I even gave up working in IT and working for corporations... I love California, but just couldn't afford it any longer. It wasn't the money as much as it was the wear and tear working that hard had taken on this old body. I live quietly in Audubon Park now. No longer the flashy go-getter. However, something I did in San Francisco as volunteer work has now become a job in Louisville. In SF, I often worked with the Religious Coalition for the Homeless, fed the street folks, and donated time and resources to help the homeless situation in that city. Being the bleeding heart that I am and will always remain, I could not step over or around the bodies of folks begging on the street, or asleep on the grates. I was never able to erase those suffering, vacant eyes from my mind. After a brief tinkering in local Louisville Democratic politics, I found a job working for a non-profit agency that is dedicated to reaching out to the suffering homeless and addicted. Now that is long way from the free-wheeling days in California. I will admit I live in genteel poverty these days, but I feel I'm doing something much more important by helping others facilitate recovery. I am neither an alcoholic nor an addict, but one doesn't have to be to see the benefits and life-changing effects of working the 12 steps. Some might say: My, how you have fallen... but I prefer to acknowledge that this is my way of giving back for both the bounty I've shared and the bounty I've squandered. Or, perhaps this is my way of being a nun. That was, after all, a childhood dream. I do not know. Nonetheless, I'm back in my beloved Kentucky, and while I miss Northern California more than I can say, I doubt if I shall ever have the opportunity to return there again. I will admit, however, before turning to a rather ascetic life, I did have the opportunity to travel to the Netherlands Antillies, Panama, various places in the Caribbean, Mexico several times, Canada as well a...Expand for more