not missing out on anything!
New Years Eve.
Everyone is out celebrating with round after round. In early sobriety, it's not uncommon for newcomers to wonder what fun they may be missing out on. In the beginning of our new life of sobriety it can feel as though life has nothing to offer us. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Do you know what I celebrate every day? Sobriety!
I celebtate it by experiencing my new freedom to make good choices. You see when I was out there drinking everyday and suffering from the obsession, I had no freedom. I was a slave to alcohol. Alcohol was my master.
I remember one time in the middle of slowly becoming intoxicated I was pondering what it would be like if I were sober and what life would have to offer. I couldn't understand how normal people got up everyday to go to work and and found anything good in their lives without picking up a drink of alcohol. I mean it made absolutely no sense to me.
Only after I had been sober for a couple of years was I able to realize how wrong I was. I'm not going to lie to you and tell you that every step of the way has been a bed of roses because it hasn't. Alcoholics are like tornadoes going through people's lives and tornadoes have a tendency to cause a lot of damage. When we get sober and find our way into recovery we discover that we have created a lot of damage that has to be cleaned up. It sometimes takes a long time to clean up that damage.
When I first got really sober in December of 2002 I had almost $80,000 worth of child support that I owed. That kind of debt is no laughing matter. I had to pay back every penny of it too. I also didn't know the first thing about being a man. You see when you are a productive member of society, you show up for work on time every day and you show up sober. You also pay your bills on time.
I didn't know anything about money. I decided that if I was going to have a wife someday I had darn well better be able to take care of her and the only way I was going to do that was by understanding personal money management and how money works. I have since done that.
I set out to get my pilot license back in 2009. I didn't walk away with the license in my hand(yet) but I did prove to myself that there's a lot more exciting things in life then being a falling down drunk. I'm currently studying real estate investment. I could go on and on about my life; What it was like, what happened and what it's like now but I'm not here to give a lead. I'm just telling you the newcomer that you have to take it one day at a time and you have to take care of first things first. Don't expect 10 years of sobriety out of 10 days. It doesn't work that way. We didn't get this way overnight and we're not going to get better overnight. All any of us have any way is today. Tomorrow is never promised and yesterday is gone forever.
I'm not the best story writer in the world and I have a tendency to jump around a lot. I just speak whatever is on my mind at the moment and hope that I touch somebody with what I have to say. In closing, I would like to paste something into this story that sticks out in my mind. In the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous, in the last chapter entitled titled A Vision For You on page 164 we have what is referred to as the last two paragraphs. It is somewhat of a summary of what the suggested program of recovery in that book is all about.
It reads:
Our book is meant to be suggestive only. We realize we know only a little. God will constantly disclose more to you and to us. Ask Him in your morning meditation what you can do each day for the man who is still sick. The answers will come, if your own house is in order. But obviously you cannot transmit something you haven't got. See to it that your relationship with Him is right, and great events will come to pass for you and countless others. This is the Great Fact for us.
Abandon yourself to God as you understand God. Admit your faults to Him and to your fellows. Clear away the wreckage of your past. Give freely of what you find and join us. We shall be with you in the Fellowship of the Spirit, and you will surely meet some of us as you trudge the Road of Happy Destiny.
May God bless you and keep you - until then.
Happy New Year
And to the newcomer;
Understand that you are important to all of us and we are glad you are here.