Image by Author James Boylan and Microsoft Image Creator
I had another reminder of all that I have to be grateful for.
I was remembered that, since I joined AA and began working the Program to the best of my ability, I now have choices. This was not always the case. I don’t think that I had choices before the Program showed me that there was a better way.
The better way is the way of sobriety.
SOBRIETY is a lot more than just not picking up that drink or drug. Once I picked up the 1st drink, I lost all ability to choose anything. I took the drink and the drink took me.
That is alcoholism or addiction.
Sobriety is feeling truly happy, joyous, and free in almost every moment of my life. When I first entered, I heard How it Works read before almost every AA meeting. The 2nd paragraph jumped out and grabbed me by the throat.
This happened almost from the very first time that I heard it.
This was where it says “If you want what we have and are willing to go to any lengths to get it,” then COD, (Come On Down) I wanted what I was seeing and hearing from the other members of AA regularly.
I wanted it with a passion! I knew that I was willing to go to any lengths to get it, whatever these lengths consisted of.
Where I was raised, it would many times cost me whatever I had in my pockets to just come down off of my porch. If I told Recob that I had a dime, he told me it would cost a dime to come down.
I said a nickel, gave him a nickel, and continued on up to the corner store.
I entered and got an ice cream cone with a hidden nickel. Then, I would take a thumping when I came out.
My mother could never understand why I was elated when he was killed in a motorcycle crash. But fear dogged me and I learned that alcohol would numb the fearful feelings for a short time so I dove in head first.
I never drank for the taste. I drank for the effect.
I had many different types of friends growing up, some just like me and some just waiting until they got older to go to prison. My first job after leaving the Army was as a bouncer at a redneck joint in Muskegon while supplementing it with foundry work in the daytime.
I am not out of place with almost anyone, no matter who they were or what they did.
Regularly, now, while working at the St. Andrews Soup Kitchen on the East side of Flint, I see and hear things that many would not believe true. When someone misses a week or two in a row, the choices of what happened are few.
They are in jail, in the hospital, dead, or in hiding from either the police or another dissatisfied person who wants to kill them.
I take my AA Program as seriously as a tornado, though, because “There but for the grace of God go I!” If I didn’t take my program seriously, I could easily become one on the receiving line in the kitchen, not the serving line.
Don’t be afraid of living.
Be happy with the fact that you can now truly live and enjoy life. If you didn’t drink or do drugs today, you now have choices, maybe for the first time. I am “Too blessed to be stressed” and you can be, too. How? Adopt an ATTITUDE of GRATITUDE.
Do you choose to be miserable or do you choose to be Happy, Joyous, and Free? The choice is yours and nobody else’s. Choose wisely!
Thank you, God!