Welcome!

Welcome to the Our Redemption blog

 A space dedicated to real stories, practical pathways, and the belief that no one's past defines their future.

Six years ago, my own journey took a radical turn toward recovery and purpose. That turn didn't just change my life it gave me my calling to help build doors where others only see walls.

Through my work in workforce development and community outreach, I see it every day what happens when someone is handed a genuine second chance and the tools to walk through it. But recovery isn't only measured in milestones and job placements. It also lives in the quieter moments the ones that don't show up on paper but hold everything together. This blog is our attempt to honor both: the practical and the sacred, the career advice and the grace notes. 

We'll share real pathways forward career guidance, community success stories, ways we can build each other up alongside the kind of reflections that remind us why the climb is worth it in the first place.

Whether you're looking for support on your own path, or searching for ways to uplift someone else's, you're in the right place.

We're starting here, with something personal.

Art By — Paul Ruch

Paul Ruch is Workforce Development Director and

Community Outreach Coordinator at Our Redemption.

Six years into his own recovery, he writes here about the lessons practical and personal that got him there.

What My Heart Teaches Me

Today, I have learned how to be sober and how to stay sober by practicing the art of gratitude and by listening to my heart.

On Respect: My heart tells me to be kind to one another. That if I want respect, I must give respect. That even if I don't get respect in return, I must give respect still.

On Peace: My heart tells me not to sweat the little things, or for that matter, the big stuff. It changes nothing by me doing so. Things are distractions from finding inner peace. Stuff gets in the way.

On Truth: Proving I am right doesn't really matter all that much at the end of the day. What matters is being honest with others, and with myself.

What Truly Matters

Loving and being loved does, though. Hugs do.

Love letters and memories built together do.

Puppy breath and a kitten's yawn matter. 

Laughing until my stomach hurts and my mind is clear matters. Friendship, family, ice cream, water fights, and foot rubs — they matter.

Telling someone who believes they are worthless how great they are, and how everything will work out that matters.

Yelling as loud as I possibly can just to let go that matters too.

Spinning in circles until I'm dizzy with my firstborn grandchild, Nelly.

Playing in the rain. Banging my head to music. Popping and locking, freezing mid-move. Slow dancing with my hand on her hips and her head resting on my shoulder. These things stay with me.

Holding hands and our breath at the same time. First and last kisses. Lovesick poetry. Art from the depths of me. Lessons learned, failing until I succeed, apologizing and meaning it, admitting that I am wrong. These things I carry.

Gratitude & Grace

Putting away my demons, my fists, and the hatred I have harbored for my own lost soul this matters most of all.

Picking up a pen, a child, or someone who is down. All of these things matter, and it's the little things in my life, as well as the grand and the sacred, that have saved me.

I sit with this now, breathe it in, let it settle. This is what my heart tells me today, and I listen humbly with a heart full of gratitude and love. My life has been blessed with untold beauty and grace because I have learned to not just hear, but to listen.

Namaste.

-Paul Ruch