Ellemental: Cin! Cin! In Italia

Cin! Cin! is “Cheers!” in Italy. Italians raise a glass and toast: “Cin! Cin!”

The trip I went on to the country of my ancestors was life‑changing. In the kitchen where I stayed, I listened to U2 on my tablet. The band’s lead singer Bono chimed in: “Activism is just wanting to be useful.”

Today I believe that through our right action justice will be served in this lifetime. Those of us with a better fortune should share information that can help other peers do well.

My aim is to entertain as well as empower and educate readers.

In Cetara, the town is known for its limoni senza trattamenti—the treatment‑free lemons without pesticides. The coastal area’s #1 locally sourced food is alici, or anchovies.

Dinners go on for three hours. Vino flows. Niente ma cieli azzurri in Cetara—nothing but blue skies while I was here.

One of the writing instructors for the tour talked with me over lemon gelato one day. She said: “Readers want to see whole characters.”

Rosa said that she can tell the focus of my writing is body, mind, and career. I like to think of health in terms of a person’s state of being—of how and whether we are at ease in our bodies and in what we think and feel.

That day I thought of five wellness journal prompts for readers to use. You can ask yourself:

Why am I here?

What activates my energy?

How exactly can I act true to myself so that I can be well and whole living in recovery?

What brings me down, and how can I cut this out of my life? (Think of a person, place, or thing that drains your energy.)

What makes me come alive? (Go do this often.)

I told Rosa that I believe acting true to yourself is a career—a real vocation. Imagine traveling 3,000 miles from home and blooming like the lemons.

On the morning of the first day of the writing workshop, one host, Alice, posed three things the Dalai Lama asked humans to consider every day:

If I speak these words, what seeds will they plant?

If I nourish this thought, where will it lead?

If I act this way, what result will it bring?

After Cetara, I chose to focus on the positive as an author with a platform that can heal. We should not buy what outsiders who harbor stigma are selling: that you and I are to be ashamed of ourselves and our future is a dead‑end.

I hope I have gotten readers to see that the world outside is ours to live in with our heads held high. We are individuals of dignity no matter what others think to the contrary.

When life hands us lemons, I say we’re here to make a lemon meringue pie and share it with others.

Recovery is bravery. There’s beauty to be had in expressing ourselves on full‑tilt. Pucker up and have the slice!