BeingStill

I finally figured out that running around like a crazy person is fruitless. It's also pretty hard to hear my Higher Power when I'm too busy trying to solve the world's problems. I need to be still for lots of reasons. I need to listen. I need to refrain from doing what's not mine to do. I need be patient and at peace with things as they are. I just plain need to stop.

And my avatar shows the water... Someplace I always find peace. The water is calm and the boat is still. And it's okay. There is no need to rush. No need to have all the answers right now.

PurpleWilder

My name used to be DirtMagnet - that referred to both a childhood name my mother gave me (cause I could find dirt anywhere) and to the fact that I always seem to attract losers!

After some rather...er....STRIDENT.... posts from SR regulars suggesting it was time for a name change, I picked PurpleSquirrel. At the time, I had just purchased a beautiful purple couch for my birthday, and "squirrel" was another childhood nickname. I hated it at the the time, but I reclaimed it by looking up the meaning of a squirrel as a totem animal and finding out it represented "resourcefulness, a prankster quality, trusty, playful; plans and saves for the future". In that respect, it is perfect!

I had also heard a story about a purple squirrel in England that local children had discovered. Apparently it had been nesting in an old storeroom full of mimeograph cartridges and the ink rubbed off on it. To the best of my knowledge, my avatar is not Photoshopped in any way.

Charon

In Greek mythology, Charon or Kharon is the ferryman of Hades who carries souls of the newly deceased across the rivers Styx and Acheron that divided the world of the living from the world of the dead. A coin to pay Charon for passage, usually an obolus or danake, was sometimes placed in or on the mouth of a dead person. Some authors say that those who could not pay the fee, or those whose bodies were left unburied, had to wander the shores for one hundred years.

Alcohol was my ferryman and now I am the boatman. I paid the ferryman, I threw off the ferryman, and now he can wander the shores for one hunderd years. Now I control the ship and I will Hold Fast to it and to the true course. I prefer to sail on the living side of the river.

The name Charon is most often explained as a proper noun, a poetic form of charopós, “of keen gaze”, referring either to fierce, flashing, or feverish eyes, or to eyes of a bluish-gray color. Fits the description of my eyes.

skippernlilg

My nickname is Skipper.

I joined a Single Moms group online several years ago. We wrote back and forth for several months before we posted our pictures to one another. One of our other members was surprised at what I really look like. She said, "You write like a librarian, but you look more like Barbie!"

I responded, "I could never be 7'2" (to scale) and weigh 100 lbs."

She wrote, "Then you're Skipper!" (Barbie's cute little sister).

It stuck.

My avatar is more feminine than my actual demeanor, but I hope to let my feminity shine as I grow. I like it. She's beautiful, and I want to be more beautiful like her. The butterflies represent freedom. I just liked it!

LovesToTravel

Wow you people put thought into your names and pictures. I too tried many names that were already used so I thought I would use something that pertained to me....I love to travel...has nothing to do with alcohol or anything. I like to change up the avatar all the time. Usually something pertaining to travel...luggage, planes, rvs..ect....I picked my signature to have something to do with travel also....

SoloMio

My name is actually a mistake--when I was trying to think of a user name, Pavarotti singing O Sole Mio popped into my head. I was thinking it was "Solo Mio"--and I identified with the fact that this road to self-improvement and focusing on my recovery was mine alone. Actually, "sole mio" is Italian for "my sun" which is such an uplifting image. I wish I got it right!

The first avatar I had for the first year I was here was Mary Lennox of the Secret Garden at the door of the garden, but not knowing what's beyond it. When I was here a year, I changed it to this one--which shows that she's been able to crack the door open a bit and the light is shining on her.

At some point, I'm hoping to change my avatar to her sitting IN the Secret Garden.

NotSoSmart

My username is in reference to the fact that people think I'm smart, capable, blah blah blah... but at the time I signed up I couldn't have felt any less of those things. I was being lied to at every turn. I used to think I could spot deception a mile away, but that was before I got involved with the most adept of trickster; the actively using addict who was trying to conceal her use.

Seren

Well, I'm a scientist who studies groundwater (hydro) and I'm a girl, well, a woman anyway.......

My avatar changes sometimes, but I kinda like the lady in the hat.....kinda wish I looked like her, sigh......

GypsyLeopard

Mine is a way of describing my spirit. With a largely Greek heritage, my physical features are very Gypsy-like, and I have a difficult time putting down roots. Leopards are stealthy and secretive animals. They try to stay out of people’s sight as much as possible. A nocturnal, solitary animal, the leopard covers a range of territory rather than claiming any one particular place, much like I have been doing the last few years of my life. I don't, however, drag my kills up into a tree...

transformyself

Love this, love hearing everyone's story, and I really love the teensiest monkeys in Charons avatar! What are they?

I want to transform myself, transform my suffering. And the lions are because I'm a Leo and love lions.

Charon

Wish I knew. My daughter and I got on a kick of blaming the "evil ****** monkey" for random stuff. Then we started sending each other pictures of cute monkeys. These are the cutest of the bunch. Much cuter than the monkey that used to be on my back.

Alone22

Love, love, love this thread! Fun to read about each of you.

When I found SR I felt very Alone and 22 is my lucky number. I honestly did not give my name much thought as I was very upset and just wanted to start my recovery. I picked the picture I used because it was one of the choices and it was exactly what I was looking for in my life.... serenity.

vujade

I had a friend who used to exclaim "Vujade! I have the feeling I've never done this before!"

Also - it is the inverse of the name my RAB chose to use on this site when he was stalking me in his drunken stupors (I was previously SKW). I figured if he was going to stalk me, he may as well know that I knew it. LOL!!

EnnuiStasis

Ennui is a French word that roughly translates as vexation, a gripping listlessness or melancholia, depression, annoyance, a feeling of utter weariness and discontent

And Stasis: stagnation, limbo, a state or condition in which there is no action or progress, moving neither forward nor backward

It just really seemed to fit.

The avatar was one of the options and just seemed to fit the day I joined ~ wide-eyed and confused, bad hair, barefoot, a little silly.

LexieCat

Huh, I wonder why I didn't post in this thread on the first go-round? Maybe I was away by then, trying to get things wrapped up for retirement!

Anyway, glad Ennui bumped it up.

I've used "Lexie" as my nom de web for years, ever since the last ex stalked me on a couple of other forums where I used to post under another name. "Lexie" is significant for a couple of reasons--"lex" refers both to the law and to words. I've been a lawyer most of my adult life, and have always loved to write, and have had to do a LOT of it in my career.

When I adopted my cat, I named her "Lexie" after my alter ego. "Lexie" as a user name was taken, so I added the Cat.

DreamsofSerenity

Erika was the name of my sister who passed away, and she was born in 1968...Wish I had been more imaginative now but when I set up the account I was totally grief stricken and out of it.. I don't know what an avatar is???

LexieCat

Your avatar is the picture you put under your name. Mine is the cover design of "One Breath at a Time," a book about recovery from a Buddhist perspective. It was one of my favorite, most inspiring books when I first got sober.

redatlanta

When I joined I was not in a great state in the midst of RAH relapse I thought about " save me from hell" , and "I hate my husband" but they were so negative I didn't know if peeps would respond. So I chose redatlanta because I have red hair and that is where I live.

Sasha4

When I was a little girl I had a doll called a 'sasha doll'
She's now worth about £800.00 but I will never part with her.

She has long dark hair, dark eyes, a sailor outfit on, black pumps, a white skirt.

I thought she was the most beautiful doll I ever did see!

4 is my lucky number and the number that everything in my life has to add up to.

I have my own Sasha doll now, my beautiful baby girl.....who I never ever thought I would ever be lucky enough half. She was born weighing 4 pounds in room four..how lucky am I?

And now she is the most beautiful doll I ever did see!

Momzo

My avatar is my cat, Czara...my name came from the name my son called me ever since he could say mom! I was always momzo. He's 18 now and calls me mother! Yuck! Makes me feel old