What is Comma Chia?

In 2019, I took a solo trip to San Diego.

I was on the ocean every day, and I felt like I was home.

It was bittersweet because I knew where I wanted to be, but I enjoyed the most beautiful life of peace, quiet, tranquility, beauty, friends, and a great job right where I was in South Lake Tahoe.

But something stirred in me that I couldn’t ignore. In the end of May, with a winter storm rolling into Tahoe on Memorial Day weekend, the only warm, dry place within driving distance was Palm Springs. So I loaded my car and took off.

On the road, I listened to three books: Kick the Drink, This Naked Mind, and Sober Curious. 

In the past, any look into my drinking habits had resulted in a vision of me standing in a smokey church basement with a buncha old men, saying…

“Hi, my name is Suzi and I’m an alcoholic.”

So, THAT was the end of THAT idea. 

But these authors opened my eyes to the truth about my drinking lifestyle, my past, my future, my health and well-being. I wasn’t an alcoholic. For sure, I had lived a “drinking life”. But a lifetime of abstinence wasn’t the only option.

No. I learned there was a middle ground. And I found it.

I took a break from drinking for 4 months. It started with a 30-day “experiment” where I lived my life normally, just subtracting alcohol from the equation. It wasn’t “easy”, but it was NOVEL, so I was able to do it in an experimental “mode”.

It was eye-opening in many ways. One thing I realized is that I had not gone 10 days without alcohol since I started drinking in my late teens. After all, the weekend always came, and there was always AT LEAST a beer in the mix somewhere. 

The month long experiment became a bit of a game. I said, “Well, 30 days is good, but there is alot of significance to 40-days (biblical, cultural).”

After that, ~50 days was at my birthday, so I thought it would be interesting to have a sober birthday (it was really fun).

I kept adding days because it was such an extraordinary experience, I didn’t want to stop. 

I went 139 days without a drink. The story of my first drink is for another time. But, suffice to say, my relationship with alcohol (and friends) changed forever. I never went back to the old way of life. For this eye-opening experience, I am so grateful. I encourage anyone who has pondered their relationship with alcohol to consider these resources for a deeper look.

In coaching, I examined many aspects of my life: Health, Financial, Emotional, Occupational, Spiritual, Relationships. I sought my dear friend Wendy to explore a tucked away part in my life…The Lord. I had become a believer in 2007 but had drifted away after not having found a church I liked in Tahoe.

Wendy and I started talking regularly and pretty soon, the Holy Spirit was my constant companion. He quietly accompanied me through the fall and winter, while I contemplated my next steps. It seemed God had me on the fast-track and Wendy said I was growing in Christ like a Chia Pet.

When COVID-19 hit in March, I was at a turning point in my relationship with God. And not a moment too soon. 

I had been in Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Santa Cruz Boardwalk/Arcade the weekend of March 7/8 and a week later, I got the weirdest cold ever. Terrible aches, headache, profound fatigue and shortness of breath. No cough, but I felt horrible. I got tested on March 17, the day after Trump shut it all down. I didn’t get my test results for 2 weeks. I had already been in my house, isolated for several days. By the time I “came out” again, I had been in quarantine alone for 17 days. The starkness of the pruning of community and friends came into focus and I knew it was time to get outta town. I started planning my exit. 

From that point until I left Tahoe, I was mostly alone. Except…I wasn’t, because I learned what it meant to have a personal relationship with God. I had no point of reference (no particular religious upbringing or experience), so it was all new, and all I knew. I was so blessed to hear God’s voice and to know the Holy Spirit lived in me.

Through Wendy, I was introduced to a group of people on a daily “Hope Call”. This call was organized very casually one morning in early March by some entrepreneur believers in response to the lockdown. These remarkable people decided to pray for each other during the uncertain and difficult time.

I felt like a kid at the grown-ups table but I kept showing up every morning at 6 am and they kept including me and loving me in a true Christian Fellowship. It has been the most extraordinary experience. At this writing, we have been meeting every day for 32 weeks. There are people from around the country and around the world. We have witnessed miracles and prayed for each other through good times and bad. These people walk the walk and they have taught me that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the The Way, through His love. I marvel at the Bible and the depth and intimacy I can have with God. They are my Church and it is a miracle.

By July/August, I knew I was leaving Tahoe for good, so I picked a move to Florida to be closer to my father and the ocean. Dad is 85 and doing great.

And I felt God was leading me to be nearer to him and to the people on the Hope Call (who “happen” to be only a couple hours from the town my father lives in). 

God continued to prune people away from me and I made some new friends who are believers.

It was a mixed bag of blessing and sadness. My old life was falling away. And even though I trusted God, it was painful and I had some stubborn moments of trying to hold on for habit’s sake. 

But there it was. The end of a season.

After having sold most of my belongings, I was in the homestretch to the move. With two weeks before liftoff, I had the good fortune and wonderful opportunity to meet many of the people on the Hope Call. I traveled to Ohio.

While there, I felt blessed by God and these good people. And at one point I thought, “Wow, this trip is like a big, fat ‘comma’ in my life…one that separates what was, and my new life to come.” 

I came home and finished up the packing, said goodbye to some people one time and to some people, several times. Some friendships deepened, some faded away completely. I made amends and peace with a few people and I felt great kindness from the people who spent time with me my last weeks in town.

Again, it was bittersweet. But so, so good.

Now, here I sit writing this in Wendy’s house in Prescott, AZ. I packed my entire life into a 5x7x7 box and am driving cross-country to new adventures.

I don’t really know what’s going to happen. I am being obedient to God, who I hear gently nudging me to…

Just Go East. 

This blog is a chronicle of life on the other side of the Comma and I humbly pray to continue to grow in Christ like a Chia Pet.

Thanks for tagging along.