Back in November of 1968 the Beatles released what is widely known as the “White Album”. One of the tracks has a famous loop of John Lennon saying “number nine”.

Nine years ago your MoM started hollering into the void of the internet. Feb 2, Groundhog Day, of 2015 I launched this blog as a bit of a lark. One of the main reasons was that I wanted to use the name Minister of Mocha somewhere. I was also launching a set of blogs for the pastoral staff at the church where I worked. They all had vaguely clever names. I remember the lead pastor questioning my ability to keep going in a consistent manner. Who’s laughing now?!?

Ostensibly this blog was started as a way to add some recovery material to our online presence at the church. However, over the past nine years I’ve found it to be a place where I can just start my week off with a little blast of hope. Like so many of us, I struggle with occasional bouts of depression and this place has been my spot to work through it and to prove to myself that there are always rays of sunshine. I hope it’s helped you as well.

So here’s to nine years of writing stuff down in order to…

—Rise Up!!