Soul Restoration

The first time I met Chip, I was at a Melvins concert with Chris. He wasn't the sort of guy you warmed up to easily. He was a heroine addict, and all the stories Chris told me about him were not exactly positive. Case in point, he wouldn't hesitate to steal from a friend if he felt the need.



We would run into him in random places. Usually Chris could spot him walking somewhere as we drove past. It was like he had a sixth sense for Chip. Right after we got married, we passed him walking down a street two blocks from where we lived. Chris gave him his phone number (again), but didn't tell him where we were living... just in case Chip got any ideas. I would sit uneasily in the car as Chris talked to Chip, Chip hardly ever making eye contact with me. I couldn't quite understand why Chris tried to maintain this relationship.


Every once in a while, Chip would get thrown into jail for stealing. When he got out, he would be sober and clear-headed and call Chris. He would find a job, usually working as a cook in a restaurant, and talk about how he wanted to stay clean.


When I was pregnant with Finley and we were in the process of renovating the kitchen, Chris picked Chip up to help him for the day. This (I think) was the first time I met Chip while he had been clean for a while. He was a different man.


A year later, in 2005, Chip landed in jail again. He called Chris again when he got out. Chris offered to let him sleep on our couch for the night. Finley was 10 months old, and I remember how sweet Chip was with her. With the veil of heroine not hanging about Chip, I found him to be sincere and deeply spiritual. I rather liked him, and finally understood why Chris didn't want to give up on him.


One month later. I remember asking Chris if he had heard from Chip recently. We stopped by the restaurant where he was working, but he wasn't there. I think they said he was late for work. A few days later, Chris got a call, informing him that some one had found Chip dead in his room at the halfway house where he had been staying. We knew his death was probably drug related, although all the autopsy said was that he died of a heart attack. At 34.

Chad was another friend of Chris's. Chad was a close-talker, but I liked him anyway. Chad was easy-going, always had a smile on his face, and you couldn't help but enjoy his company.

A year and a half ago, Chad fell into depression. Eventually he killed himself.

Chris and I have a couple of big voids in our lives now. Losses like those aren't easy to come to terms with.

One thing that Chris always says to friends who are struggling with addiction or some other difficulty was that they needed to separate themselves from the old and find a new environment and new people who have a better way of thinking and living. It is too easy for some one who has been given a fresh start, but only knows the old way of life and the has same friends with the same old bad habits, to fall right back into what it was they were trying to rise above.

Part of our vision for having an acreage is to have a place where others can come to get away from that old environment for a while. A place where they can drink in the goodness of nature and to meet God without distraction, where the soul can be restored.