Codependent
No More

#1 Bestseller newly revised October 2022!

Beyond
Codependency

A guided tour past the pitfalls of recovery

The New
Codependency

Help and guidance for today’s generation

The Grief Club

The secret to getting through all kinds of change

Codependent Forevermore

By Stephanie Darnell

I will love him more than I should,
Give him more benefit of the doubt
Than he deserves.
I will accept half-truths
As if they were whole,
Believing him, instead of my gut.
I will overlook discrepancies in his explanations.
I will cautiously walk on the eggshells
He keeps around himself.
I will forget who I am,
But remember his mother’s birthday,
Sign his name on a card, and mail it to her.
I will live a lie without even knowing it,
and I’ll wonder why I’m not happy
and why nobody has ever thanked me.


Occasionally a poem catches my attention. This one captures my heart. In five stanzas it also defines codependency — at least what it means to poet Stephanie Darnell and others.

No Small Love, Stephanie’s online gallery and shop, offers more of her creations, including a growing collection of greeting and note cards. While most of the cards speak to special occasions such as a daughter’s birthday, her gallery includes three sympathy cards that speak to grief with the same clarity and soul as her poem about codependency.

Stephanie’s poem and website don’t need a longer introduction. They speak for themselves.

Melody

From the desk of Melody Beattie

Originally posted 2010


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