“Scared and sacred are spelled with the same letters. Awful proceeds from the same root word as awesome. Terrify and terrific. Every negative experience holds the seed of transformation.”
― Alan Cohen
There’s so many cliches about change, canned responses that make the whole thing seem so easy, and admirable. Well, to put it bluntly, change sucks and it’s hard. Change rarely ever begins because of something great. It’s usually the muck, facing our demons and the realities we’ve made for ourselves initiating transformation. “Becoming something other than” is not a painless process. Men don’t get to feel birthpangs, but the process of transformation certainly elicits a very specific kind of pain. Yet it’s from that that we create space for something new, something as yet unseen, unknown. That’s why we offer something far deeper than just men’s sober living, a bridge from inpatient to community life. We offer transformation.
For people in recovery from addiction, the not seeing, not knowing, and waiting for change is perhaps one of the greatest pains of them all. As it is with families, the wishing, the hoping, the praying that their loved one will come out the "other side" like they were before the addiction, but they won't, and can't. No matter what, addiction awareness and the hard work around it fundamentally transforms them. Our philosophy is to nurture the image of who they want that person to be, but we can't hand it to them. We chose the word "Transformations" very intently; while recovery from addiction is the hub of this wheel, it's truly about the whole self that's undergoing this massive metamorphosis. We often call the whole self something like "mind-body-spirit," but our philosophy is that one is not separate from the other. Our language doesn't contain a word that fits all three into one, but our approach to recovery does.
The transformation from a person in misery with their active addiction to a gratefully recovering addict may not be easy, but your singular, precious life didn't come into this world easily, and surviving in it isn't as smooth as we think. We're constantly running gauntlets that could endanger us, from our hectic lifestyles, to driving crazy, even surviving onslaughts of bacteria and viruses we never know we're fighting off. It's amazing that we're alive in this world; it's even more amazing when we can become re-enlivened to all of the potential within ourselves as part of this world.
FIREBIRD TRANSFORMATIONS isn't just about men's sober living... it's about redefining life.
It’s About How We Look At Things
Our CEO practices a philosophy of care called “Onion-ing.” Here’s “TedTalks” style explanation of it, as derived from a recent presentation.
Our Values
Recovery is a necessary social movement to reclaim the value of life. We believe that the deep process of personal transformation equips society with compassionate, wisdom-keeping men ready to teach from their hard-won lessons.
Deep Serenity
To truly address addiction, we must go beyond the substance and delve into the substantial. We rely on the natural beauty of the surrounding mountains and our serene home as a setting to do the great work of getting to the core, offering renewal.
The Brotherhood
The men who come as individuals to FIREBIRD form powerful bonds because of the intimacy of their shared journey, the necessity of transparency, and the vitality that is resurrected by the unburdening of shame and stigma.
There’s so many cliches about change, canned responses that make the whole thing seem so easy, and admirable. Well, to put it bluntly, change sucks and it’s hard. Change rarely ever begins because of something great. It’s usually the muck, facing our demons and the realities we’ve made for ourselves initiating transformation. “Becoming something other than” is not a painless process. Men don’t get to feel birthpangs, but the process of transformation certainly elicits a very specific kind of pain. Yet it’s from that that we create space for something new, something as yet unseen, unknown. That’s why we offer something far deeper than just men’s sober living, a bridge from inpatient to community life.
