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About
A journey through addiction and redemption... with a little help from a four-legged friendIn 2007, Mark Saluke was stuck in the full-blown throes of alcoholism, careening from one dreary drunk to the next, digging his grave one bottle at a time. When his latest arrest presented one more last chance, Mark painfully crawled out of the darkness of his addiction and into the light of sobriety. He realized he was not alone as he found redemption in a recovery community... and in a dog.LUCY'S WAY is the story of that dog, guiding Mark through his final days of active addiction into the early days of recovery. As he came to realize, Lucy was already living out the concepts he was only beginning to understand in recovery. Slowly, as he began to experience the joys Lucy had always known, Mark recognized how the simple principles of Taoism were illuminating his journey into sobriety, as well as day-to-day life with the Labrador beagle who became his best friend. MARK SALUKE spent fifteen years in active addiction. A Taoist sticking to the premise of Beginner's Mind to keep himself out of trouble, Mark has been active in mindfulness groups and his recovery community since 2008. As a newspaper journalist over the span of two decades, Mark has written sports, human interest, business and education stories for the Kokomo Tribune and other publications. After semi-retiring from the newspaper business in 2019, he found a calling in the community mental health field, catering to a population of clientele dealing with depression, anxiety and other mental illnesses as well as substance use disorders. He lives in Indiana with the enduring spirits of two life-saving best friends, Lucy and Buddy the cat.