Doug Bolton

Welcome to our world. I am about to share everything about my life that you may have been afraid to ask.

Michael Clark will share after I am through rambling here. Read his story below my Bio.

I am a retired teacher of 25 years of service. I am 70 years old, but I feel much younger. It is because of the many years of working with youth. I have a wonderful wife, three children, and six grand children.

I am going to also share a few of my favorite things. (Could be a song here.)

Favorite Music:

Any songs by Johnny Mathis, old gospel music, Frank Sinatra, the group Boston, Christian music.

Favorite Movies:

Close Encounters of the Third Kind , The Passion of Christ, Forest Gump, and any Disney film.

Favorite Books:

Many James Patterson Books, all Max Lucado books ( especially “Facing your Giants”).

I love to fish. I wish I golfed more. I enjoy reading. My wife and I love to go to baseball Spring Training in Phoenix, Arizona every March. We also like to watch tennis and college football together. We have traveled all over Asia. That is one reason I love being around her.

Now that I am retired, I have taken up writing. I have completed a book that I have been working on for serveral years called, Signs of Hope: Ways to Survive in an Unfriendly World. I have a separate website www.dougbolton.com to show off the book. I will keep you posted about it on that.

I am also writing another book called, Becoming Famous Before you are Famous. It is a guide for writers who want to build a platform and get known before the get an agent, or go to a publisher.

It will cover, among other things, social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, My Space, Friendster, etc. There will be directions on how to hook up to them, and what to look out for when you use them. There are spammers, and scammers out there.

I will be sending out one chapter at a time on Facebook and my online newsletter called, Signs of Hope Press. I will be asking for feedback  from the readers. I guess we can call it a group writing of a book. Sounds like fun.

To get the newsletter free go to,  www.dougbolton.com and click on the icon that talks about subscribing on the right side bar.

My life has not always been calm. I have been through many storms, both physically and mentally. My mental anguish almost lead me to suicide. Part of my postings on this blog will be about how to avoid, self doubt, fear, hopelessness, etc. 

My physical storms have been many. I have had two back surgeries,  gall bladder surgery, an Achillies heel surgey, had a pacemaker implanted, and the big kahuna…quadruple by-pass surgery. I have survived all of them; and, I can happily say that I am now controlling the physical part of my life, by exercise, and a weight program. I have lost 60 pounds and walk three miles every day when I can.

I look to the future with excitment. My writing has calmed me down and has given me an outlet for all of my frustrations.

The journey that we will take together on this blog will be some stories and a lot of information that I have learned over the last ten years on how to cope with depression, self doubt, anxiety, hopelessness, and fear of failure. I faced all of them and can really say I have been there and done that.

I have also done the research on these afflictions.  I have gathered hours of data that I will be sharing in my free newsletter you can get by going to the side bar and sign up.

You will get to know me much better as I share on this blog. One of the most important things I think you can do is make comments to my posts.  This will help others learn on how to cope with their mental demons. You may have been in this position and have knowledge to share. 

Doug Bolton

OUT!

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Hello and welcome.

I’m simply a person who has had it all, lost it all, and now is trying to give what I have left back.

I worked at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida in project development before having to retire due to Crohns Disease. I have had 22(twenty two major mid-line surgeries) so I can relate to health problems and the discouragement and depression that can so frequently accompany them.

At Blue Cross I worked developing issue papers, cost analysis, project proposals, test claims, and database programing. I conducted training both internally and externally to other Blue Cross Blue Shield plans throughout the country

I have been blessed with great supervisors who allowed me to make mistakes and taught be to grow and learn from them. By supervisors that showed me you can be a dedicated employee and a dedicated husband and father within your family. People who led through respect versus dictating. Supervisors who would not ask you to give up time from their family without sacrificing time with theirs. I learned so much from one imparticularly that burned an image in my mind of  how one can balance work and family successfully.

After retiring from Blue Cross Blue Shield, I traveled down the path of addictions. I can blame in on the disease, the pain or the medications associated with treating the disease, but the simple truth is I made some really poor choices.

Some would say they “lost” everything, I “gave” everything away- family, house, cars, time with children- I knew all two well what the consequences would be if  I continued to live that lifestyle, and chose it anyway.I gave away  everything that mattered, God left me with the one thing that He need to change, – ME.

God reached down and created circumstances, based on my choices that were such, I was forced to fall back on Him. I have spent time in recovery centers, seen friends shot, seen friends die. When I made the choice to change my life, a burden was lifted that I cannot explain. Two days after leaving for the last recovery center, the friend I lived with burnt up in His house.

Today I am very thankful for where God has brought me, and where He is carrying me. He is restoring everything back in my life, my wife, my children, friends and family. I am not the man I was before starting the journey into addictions. Somewhere in asking God to change my life- He changed me.

Today I am a Chaplain, Biblical Counselor, working on Certification in Addiction Studies. I work as a disaster relief chaplain, and travel speaking in recovery centers and prisons. I have been accepted back into society as a productive member.The Ministry God has allowed me to run helps supply recovery centers and prisons with scripturally sound material for the group studies and their personal time (This is only made possible my generouse ministries, authors and individuals who have been generous in their equipping).

I am currently editing my  manuscript about the Grace God has shown in my life that will be titled “Hope in the Shadows” I am founder of “Shadow of the Cross Ministries”  http://www.ourchurch.com/member/c/clarkministry/

It may sound like “I” do alot of things today, But any success, or any good I do today is because of Him and His grace. Without Him I would be nothing, my best thinking ended me up at the far end of the wrong path