Earthwise welcomes Mary Gauthier, Sunday Oct 17, 2 pm Mitchell Park Bowl

I came to songwriting a few years after I got sober. I showed up wounded, with an ego deeply damaged from years of addiction. Like most addicts in early recovery, I had an inflated sense of self-importance, and an arrogance that I now believe developed as protection from self-loathing and low self-esteem. Addiction, a disease of the ego, left me lonely and removed, a condition I have heard described as an egomaniac with an inferiority complex. I also carried two other early-in-recovery opposing emotions: a deep sense of entitlement, and the conviction that I was unlovable. As you can imagine, this churning cauldron of toxicity within me was painful. I needed some kind of miracle to bring me to a better place, to find peace, to help me become right sized and reality based.

I did not know it yet, but music and song would become a part of that much needed miracle, a huge source of healing for my soul wounds. It would teach me how to replace negative, binary thinking with positive action.

But every step forward required courage and commitment.

You ask, who encouraged me? Well, no one really. The journey, and the struggle, were mine. But I did find community to lean on as I made my way from chef/restaurateur to singer songwriter. (From marygauthier.com. amen, sister; Jaimee Harris, Tamara Dunn and Sylvie Simmons also appear)

https://www.amazon.com/Saved-Song-Healing-Power-Songwriting/dp/1250202116

Host or Publisher Mark Weiss dba Earthwise