ARC Community Blog…


"The Little Engine that everybody said couldn't, wouldn't and shouldn't..."

except for Bill Macquis and Sara Troy

This is their story…










“Often it is the very person that we could never have imagined of that accomplish the things no one else ever imagined possible”

– Bill Macquis


OCD – natural phenomenon or medical disorder?

OCD - natural phenomenon or medical disorder?

“The most fundamental human right is to be able to live LIFE with purpose, meaning and dignity”

When we talk about people like Jesse Owens, Wayne Gretsky and Tiger Woods we use words like superstar, hero, and nutural phenomenon to describe them. Yet the reality is these people are not much different from people like me, someone has has been diagnised to have ‘OCD, which is a mental disorder . All 4 of us are miracles in life, naturally occurring anomalies and phenomenon’s of nature!!!  The major difference between us is how society has chosen to brand people like me with a labels that convey that we are damaged, disfuncional and disposable!

OCD is an acronym for medical term used to identify and label someone who exhibits an uncontrollable obsessive compulsive behavior which medically diagnosed as “Obsessive Compulsive Disorder” Believ it not you have experienced this behavior under certain situations in our own life. In fact it is a totally natural instinctual behavior and it is on of the basic defense mechanism that built into our DNA. I am going to share of this that I know many of you have probably experienced in your life. We all love to go away on a holiday to get some much needed and wanted rest and recreation.  This excercise to escape from the every day stress in your life, triggers a very specific behavior pattern that introduces a form of stress into your life to deal with.

This new form of stress actually began manifesting the moment you fist thought about taking a holiday and does’t fully subside until after you return home and your every day life returns to normal again. This is why you ofter here people say ‘The worse things about taking vacations, is coming back and having to cleanup all the messes that were created while they were away’ This form of stress is part of your body’s normal natural defense mechanisms that alert you the potential personal harm , danger or injury that might result from the actions you are about to take. Despite all your warnings your mind has sent you. You decided to take a vaction anyway, at that very moment your subconcious mind immediately activated your ‘OCD’ defense mechanism with…

Stage 1 OCD – From the point you decided to take a holiday, stress slowly builds up to the eve of your departure. This stress is primary created from all the  additional activities you needed to complete in order for you to take a holiday,  that in turn prevented you acomplishing the things that you normally been able to accomplish.

Stage 2 OCD – The eve before your departure, the stress rapidly begins  to build. Eventhogh you eat a good dinner and decide to hit tha sack early so you be fully rested for your  flight the next day; your mind is constanly reviewing all the checklists you made to ensure that you would have a great time relaxing and enjoying your holiday. This overly active brain causes you to have a restless sleepless night. You finally deceide to drag ass out of bed in the morning, reach over and grab your smart phone to check the time and discover it’s only 2 AM!

Stage 3 OCD – Now unable to go back to sleep and knowing your flight doesn’t leave until 1PM, now your stresslevel has built up almost to your boiling point. So you end up spending the rest of the nignt running around like a chicken with its head cut off doing…

  1. You run around double checking to make sure the lights are off.
  2. You make sure all the windows are closed and locked
  3. You makes sure all the water facets sre tunred off
  4. You make sure your lawn’s automatic watering system is programmed properly
  5. You throw out all the perishable food in the fridge
  6. You make sure all the garage dorrs are locked doors and your cars security arlam is armed.
  7. You go through your luggage one more time just to make sure you have not forgotten to pack anything.
  8. You double and triple check that you your airplane tickets to make sure you have them.
  9. You wash the dirty dishes and put them away
  10. You even manged to get a couple of loads of laundry washed, dried folded and put away!
  11. add on for infinitum, until…

Stage 4 OCD: It’s now 15 minutes before the cab is supposed to arrive to take you to the airport. You finally resign yourself to that fact that if you have missed or forgetten anything it’s to late for you to do anything about it. So you decide take these few minutes to sit dowm and try and relax a before the cab shows up. As you sit there waiting you suddenly realize that you haven’t been this productive or efficeint working around the house and that it hasn’t look the clean and tidy since the last time you took a holiday. The cab finally arrives… 20 minutes late! Not worry though, everything begins flowing smoothly again once you finally hit the road. You have that badly wanted and needed time you wnated and needed for to relax and rejuvination, before you had to return home again…

Stage 5 OCD: The getting your self ready for return trip home puts you through Stages 1 through 4 again before you find yourself safely on the way home again…

I used this real life experience as an example of how the natural ‘OCD’ defense mechanism normally works. The difference with people like me, is that the mechanisms in my brain that control this defense mechanism do not work properly and we end up getting stuck in an endless loop that spirals out of our control. Learning how to identify, manage and control the conditions tha trigger this defense mechanism takes time, patience and a lot of hard work. This is the same process we apply to grow. develop and master any skill or talent. The real life challenge for people like me is not having ‘OCD’, it is overcoming societies perceptions that we are intellectuly limited, emotionally challenged and incapable of functioning normally in the real world!!! In this this day and age, is there anyone who can? So why do people and continue treating us this way? The truth about OCD is that is not not a disorder at all. It is natural phenomenon. If everyone focused on the human potentialty of people with ‘OCD’, instead the societaly imposed limitaiions., other people just like me could accomplish things that no one else could have ever dreamed possible! In my life I am blessed and filled with gratitude to my parents for embracing this phenomenonal gift that I was born with.  Thier love, support and dedication enabled me to discover, embrace and actualize that having “OCD” just means I am a just a very, very, very, very, very, very ‘Optomistic,  Creative, DreamerI’

in gratude,
Bill Macquis


The universe always delivers exactly what you need when you need it the most…

The picture doesn’t mean the universe will delivery you free coffee from Starbucks. Although that would have been really appreciated at the time this story took place. Once again, the universe chose Starbucks to be the place where I was to learn one of the most important lessons in my life. It was in late February of 2012, while in the progress of recovering from serious health issues, that coincidentally also started at same Starbucks a few months prior. The recovery progress I had been making, suddenly began rapidly spiralling downhill and out of control. My frustration in dealing with this situation was becoming intolerable. One morning I walked into Starbucks and there was new a display stand filled with lots of copies of Howard Schultz’s new book “Onward’ standing beside the order counter. For some strange reason the visual of seeing the word “Onward’ repeated so many times began manifesting inside me to simply keep moving ‘Onward’ everything is going to work out. Everyday that I went back to Starbucks and saw the book display, that feeling kept growing stonger and stronger with in me. No matter how things were going to go that day all I had to do was just keep moving ‘Onward”.

A couple of weeks before my birthday in May, I was down at Starbucks with my longtime friend and roomate Sara Troy and she asked what I wanted for my birthday. Nomally I usually tell her not to get me anything, but this year I decided that I would really love to have a copy of the book. Upon hearing my request, her face immediately made the most bemused and confused look I have ever seen. Her facial conturtions weren’t caused becuase this was the first time since we had know each other that I actually wanted something for my Birthday. It was created by that fact that I had requested a BOOK!. Yes a book, because she knew I avoided anything to do reading a writing at all cost. There are a very few gifts that I have received that I am truly thankful for recieving and cherish and this is one of them. After unwrapping that gift I immediately went and prominently displayed on that night table beside my bed, so that it would be the first thing I saw when I awoke, the last thing I would remember each night before going to sleep and most importantly to remind me when during the day when I would be laying writhing in crippling pain cused by my siezures, that as long as I kept moving ‘Onward’ everything was going to work for the better.

I wrote this article to give to Sara as my gift to her for her Birthday and to mark our 1st year Anaiversary since the universe i tervened and sent us off on our own individual journeys. Both of us have been on roller coaster rides since parting company, and the lessons that we each have learned along the way have provide each us with greater clarity and wisdom that will serve us well in our future. I will always be internally grateful for everything that your supoort and encouragement has enabled me to achieve. Have a Happy Bithday and may next year be one filled with health, happiness and good fortune!

In gratitude,
Bill Macquis, kindred spirit and ‘DIVA-LIFE’partner.

PS. The universe actually did deliver me that free coffee from Starbucks that I needed. Every copy of the book sold came with a commemorative ‘Onward’ Starbucks card preloaded with $5! The money was spent long ago, but the card is always in my wallet serving as a constant reminder to simply keep moving Onward! The the book has found a new home, sitting prominently displayed on my desktop to keep reminding to keep moving ‘Onward’

After I finally recovered enough to resume to being able to live a relatively normal life I finally did sit down and read the book, which more than ever confirmed my belief that…

Miracles in life don’t just happen. You live LIFE to make them happen!’

– Bill Macquis