John Foster is the founder of Family Complex Litigation & Collaborative Group (“FCLC Group”). John’s son, John Wayne, who became addicted to drugs at an early age, finally found his way into recovery but sadly relapsed in July 2013, overdosed and died. So, as a parent, John knows too well that addiction is a matter of life or death, and he often writes and speaks about addiction and recovery. (He’s also an avid surfer and the above photo shows him surfing one of his favorite places, Playa Hermosa in Costa Rica.)

John is a member of the Family Law Section’s “Health & Wellness Committee” and, on behalf of this Committee, he will be authoring three upcoming Commentator articles, two of which will discuss the issues of addiction and recovery within our family law cases and the third of which will be a collaborative effort with Dr. Don Kennedy to discuss addiction and recovery within our legal profession.

In addition to being a long-time family doctor, Dr. Kennedy is an awesome author and public speaker, who has focused much of his recent studies, writings and retreats on health, wellness and “burn-out” among professionals. John and Dr. Kennedy’s collaborative article will also address this issue of “burn-out”, which can often be one of the underlying causes of addiction. So, please keep an eye out for the upcoming issues of The Commentator.

In the meantime, FCLC Group will be sharing posts from time-to-time to discuss health, wellness and other useful and hopefully interesting information. For instance, in this post we will introduce one of the books written by Dr. Don Kennedy, to wit: The Surfer’s Journey, which is a guidebook telling a mythological story that teaches how we may become, and inspire others to become, transformational heroes (i.e., “leaders” who are cause-driven and who inspire others to achieve beyond their present capacity and find their life purpose). One of Dr. Kennedy’s many metaphorical messages is that, in order to transform into the “hero” that we want to be, we must “Paddle Out and Live.” For surfing this means that you must grab your board and paddle out to find the wave that, when caught and ridden successfully, will leave you with a sense of pure joy.

In order to do this in surfing, you must make your health and wellness a priority. If you do not do so, you can never find that “wave of bliss”, as Dr. Kennedy describes it. Of course, as The Surfer’s Journey makes clear, “Paddle Out and Live” does not apply only to surfing but rather is a metaphorical message that applies to whatever passions or life purpose that you may wish to pursue. And, in your pursuit of your passions or life purpose, you too must make health and wellness a priority. If you do so, you will feel better in Mind, Body and Soul and you will plainly be on the path toward finding your proverbial “wave of bliss”. Now, you may ask, how do I make health and wellness a priority? John will share a few thoughts on this in the next blog post. In the meantime, for those of you who have a few pointers on this topic, please share.