IN YOUR OWN WORDS SO MANY SECOND CHANCES WHEN I THINK BACK on second chances, I’ve had so many, but learning to love myself as deeply as I do was the biggest second chance I’ve ever had. When you’re RAELENE JOHNSON DENVER VOICE VENDOR broken and your life is falling around you, you don’t have any love for yourself. Until you can get your life out of chaos, you can’t truly love yourself. I thank my higher power for allowing me to finally love myself and want the best for me. A second chance came in the form of being clean and sober for 17 years. When you get off drugs and alcohol, your life can fully change. When you’re doing drugs and alcohol, and you’re in the depths of it, you have no love for yourself. You don’t know how to get out of your situation, and you feel lost and abandoned. People walk away from you when they see how you’re acting, and they don’t want to be around you. Sometimes, when you’re into drugs and alcohol, you really don’t want to listen to someone when they’re trying to help you because you believe that you’re far beyond help. Let me tell you, you are not beyond help. There is life after drugs and alcohol. You just have to want to give yourself a second chance at life without drugs and alcohol! Until you decide that you want a better life, you will not receive it! Second chances can come from family. They walk away from you after so many chances, until you get your life together. Once they see that you’ve got your life together again, they may be willing to come back into your life and give you a second chance. Do not waste that chance! Good family and friends are the most important things that you need in your life! Those are people who care about you, but first, you have to care about yourself. I can tell you from a recovering addict’s point of view that life only gets better the longer you stay away from drugs and alcohol! Your wildest dreams can come true, and dreams that you never even knew you had will appear before you. Second chances can come in the form of a job that you never knew you would be good at. That is what the Denver VOICE has done for me. They didn’t care why I couldn’t get a job over 17 years ago. They just gave me 10 papers and a badge, and the rest was up to me. I have completely transformed my life because of the paper. I’ve been able to get drugs- and alcoholfree, to go from sleeping outdoors to being in my own home for almost 15 years. I became the writer that I never knew I could be. When you don’t have formal schooling, and people tell you throughout your childhood that you’re “dumb, stupid, and retarded,” or that “you’re no good,” or “you’ll never amount to anything,” you lose hope. Do not believe anyone who says anything negative to you because people who are in pain themselves will go out of their way to make other people miserable, because if they can’t be happy, why should anybody else? THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE STEVE ANSON DENVER VOICE VENDOR THE RICH AROMA OF roasted chiles wafts across a parking lot and into my nose. That is what I take away from vending the VOICE at the University Hills farmers’ market, along with the pet treats I was given by a donor. (I do not care for a pet. I would, but I can barely care for myself.) I vend at farmers’ markets on weekends from May through September. I find these markets to be a positive reflection of the persons that make up the United States of America. These are individual enterprises and farms run by people, each of whom is making the promise of a free-market economy combined with a political democracy a continued possibility. As many people agree, the free-market ideal has been slowly supplanted by a corporate takeover of how we get the products we use. The democracy that most Americans value and some fight for is in severe danger from some who practice oligarchy. I am writing the rest of this piece early on a Sunday afternoon after a morning during 4 DENVER VOICE September 2025 Stay away from people like that. The only people you should be around are the ones who lift you up and let you know you’re doing a good job, or tell you, “You can do it,” or “I’m proud of you!” When you hear those words, you start to believe in yourself. Words are powerful. They can destroy you or build you up. Listen to the words that build you up, but don’t take in the negative words because if you do, you’ll stay in hardship, sadness, and misery, and think that you don’t deserve anything good at all. Those negative words are other people projecting onto you. Do not destroy yourself by beating up on yourself. Remember, only Self can change Self! Today, I choose to love myself and give myself every opportunity that’s before me. I am grateful in my heart that I’m not in the streets anymore and that I’m a paid published author because of the VOICE. I never knew I could write and have people tell me how powerful my writing is. The best gift that I gave to myself was understanding that I could have a better life, and it is because of the VOICE and people that I have met who have been willing to look beyond my brokenness to give me a second chance. If there’s nobody to lift you up, you need to be the person to lift yourself up. Say to yourself, “I’m tired of being tired. I’m tired of being sick and tired. I want to be happy and healthy, and only I can make sure that that happens.” You have to want it deep inside of you to change you and your circumstances. I no longer have to worry about being homeless, worrying about where I can go to sleep, or wondering where I can take a shower. That’s a hard life to have to deal with, and if that is your life, reach out and ask for help. People are willing to help you, but you have to be willing to ask for the help! which I got reminded of a small flaw in my thinking. I will illustrate. This morning, I gave myself a wake-up call. I decided to vend at a farmers’ market in a more affluent section of Denver. A young man who was running a stand along with his sister walked across the street to donate and “buy” a paper. I noticed his shirt and wrongly assumed that it reflected his military service. He informed me that he would be going into training for naval service in two months. He gave me two bucks that I appreciated greatly. I thanked him for his service to the country. About an hour later, his sister crossed that street and began a conversation with me and my scraggly beard. She told me she loved the writing in the paper, filling me with a sense of pride. I informed her in my awkward way that I pretended to write, and that I intended to submit for the September issue. I didn’t think it was possible, but that made her even more bubbly, and she added a twenty to the donation her brother had given. Self-love and self-care are the best second chances you’ll have in your life. You have to be the one to do the work to change your life, and giving yourself a second chance at life is the best gift you’ll ever give yourself. My prayer is that everyone who is broken will reach out and get the help they need. You are worth that and so much more. If nobody’s told you that today, I’m telling you that you are the one who has to stand up for self and want a second life for yourself. I know it’s hard when you’re down and out, but you have to believe in yourself that you can do it, and once you do it, you’ll see the life that you can have. I got a second chance at being cancer-free. That’s a big one in this day and age. There’s so much cancer out there, but if you get it, you have to be positive and say, “I’m going to beat it, I’m not going to let it beat me.” Positivity is the best gift you can give to yourself! No matter what you’re going through in life, you have to care about yourself first and stay positive that you can beat whatever your situation is – if you believe that you can. There are so many different second chances out there. You just have to fight for a second chance for yourself and then see all the different second chances that will come from family, jobs, and associations. Everything will be a second chance for you to do over, but you have to be willing to put the work in and do it yourself. Nobody can do the work for you but you! Give yourself a second chance and discover the life that you could have! I know second chances are worth it because I was given them on so many different levels that, and that is my wish for you! Just reach out and grab for a second chance in your life, no matter what it is. Thank you for reading my story, and I hope it inspires you. I am grateful for all of the second chances I’ve had! I kept my head about me and continued to vend for an hour more. Before I caught the light rail back to downtown Denver. I practice a form of meditation called “Vipassana.” One can do this for whatever length of time one wishes. On a train ride, I find five minutes appropriate, and it feels like I just got a full night’s sleep. So, completely refreshed, I reflected upon my weekend and concluded that what I experienced over the two days was a connection to the society in which I live. I recovered, further, a sense of service. Whether or not we are conscious of it, we all serve each other. So, to every light rail train operator, every cashier, every firefighter, indeed, even the property manager in my building, to everyone, thank you for your service! Oh. About those pet treats. I left them in front of my next-door neighbor’s apartment door. I hope their dog enjoyed them. Thank you, donors.
5 Publizr Home