Thoughts To Help You On Your Recovery Path

[MajestyJo]

Too often, we look only for friends who are much like ourselves, and we tend to avoid those who are not. This kind of narrow-mindedness isn't fair to others or ourselves. We are each unique, like the pieces of a puzzle. We are each necessary to the whole picture.

Today's Gift

When we come into recovery, things can be very overwhelming and it is so important to stay in today, and just live in the moment. I had to learn about the short and long view of things. It is strange I often had short view and couldn't see the end result or the whole picture and yet there were times I couldn't see what was right in front of my face.

I could often see the long view, but didn't know how to get there. Because things seemed unattainable, I would do nothing not knowing that it takes small steps and that I had to learn to crawl before I could walk.

For me, it is good that I can see both sides of the street. Having been raised in an alcoholic home, lived an abusive alcoholic marriage, and having the disease of alcoholism myself, even though I have been in recovery for a few 24-hours, I have been there, done it, wore the T-shirt and don't want to go back there. I don't want to look back, although it is sometimes necessary to heal in today, I need to live in the moment and not project into the future or lament over my past.

I didn't get this way overnight, and the program isn't a quick fix. All I am asked to do is try to do the best I can for this 24 hours. The support is there. I had to surround myself with sober friends, detach from (in my case family and friends), until I could get a firm foundation and allow myself to detox, get a grip of the program and how it works, got myself a sponsor to call, and friends who could be there for support. It wasn't about next week, a month away, next year, it was about today. Just for today, I choose to stay clean and sober.

The whole picture, making my space clean and safe for me. A safe place to put me in and my belongs in. A place to go, where I was safe to heal, change and grow. That was the picture that I wanted to see, someone free from the bondage of addiction.