I have been clean for:
I Stand With Ukraine

Welcome

Journal

Some memes

Feel Free to steal and repost these memes!

Surrender meme Work the steps meme

หœ my hopeless living problems have become joyously changed หœ

Posted: Tue, Aug 31, 2010 08:37:23 AM

active addiction has been arrested, and now anything is possible! sitting here starting at my monitor and glancing at the pile of work i have to accomplish this week, i could and am tempted to whine about too much. i then remember that for the longest time over the course of this past year, the problem has been a clear desktop with no projects to hammer away at, when i go there instead, i am struck with a feeling of gratitude, which is what i heard after quieting my overactive mind down for the few brief minutes i accomplished this morning.
what you came here to find was not a bunch of clichés about the prevailing party line, and what i really want to write is something a bit more poignant than that. while it is quite true, that i am grateful today, it is just as true that gratitude is often replaced with rage, that rage starts when i realize how different i am from the so-called “normal” world, and sitting down with my sponsor the other day, only reinforced that realization, as we were speaking, he and i both with incredulous about how the other half, for the most part, seem to make decisions that expand their futures, while we, when in active addiction, see to make decisions that limit our choices and future possibilities. and that my friends SUCKS. why is it that i have to learn what come naturally to the majority of the world? why is it that i have no concept of doing just one, or going on a one-night bender and walking away from it? why is it, that one bit of acting-out or using triggers a cascade that takes a POWER greater than me to stop? why, why, why!???
boy, even just writing that down, gets me a bit worked up! so where do i go from here? well the first step tells me i must surrender to that difference and learn to accept it as fact PERIOD. the SECOND STEP provide the pathway to HOPE that although that is true, and more than likely will never change, there is a way out. that gateway to a better life is only limited by the scope of my SECOND STEP, and all i have to do, is to allow the process to manifest itself within me. no i will never be free of the malady of addiction, that much i have visible evidence for, both from my own life and from the life of those who still attempt to go out and test those waters. I CAN HOWEVER, live a life of active recovery that arrests active addiction and allows me the opportunity to become the man i have always wanted to be. that is where i think i will go this morning, yes i have a ton of work, yes i have to run a bunch opf errands, yes i have to think of something to give my significant other for her clean date anniversary tomorrow and yes, i have to get my a$$ to a meeting tonight, BUT all of that is only possible because i have the HOPE that i can be a better person than i was yesterday, IF I LIVE A PROGRAM OF ACTIVE RECOVERY and let the process work its magic in me. so the time has come to hit the streets and finish off this workout cycle, then back to the keyboard to get done what i need to do. it is a good day to be on this side of the dirt and to have the desire to stay clean, no matter what.

∞ DT ∞


Another Look

This day in older entries

๐ŸŒŠ i have to ๐ŸŒ‹
634 words ➥ Monday, August 31, 2026 by donnot
๐Ÿ‘ on being true ๐Ÿ‘Œ
410 words ➥ Sunday, August 31, 2025 by donnot
๐Ÿคจ grateful ๐Ÿคฏ
557 words ➥ Saturday, August 31, 2024 by donnot
๐Ÿ”ˆ fidelity to ๐Ÿ”Š
407 words ➥ Thursday, August 31, 2023 by donnot
๐Ÿ™ so much more ๐Ÿ™Œ
374 words ➥ Wednesday, August 31, 2022 by donnot
๐ŸŒค how much ๐ŸŒฅ
441 words ➥ Tuesday, August 31, 2021 by donnot
๐ŸŒ„ losing track ๐ŸŒ„
186 words ➥ Monday, August 31, 2020 by donnot
๐Ÿฑ more freedom ๐Ÿฒ
434 words ➥ Saturday, August 31, 2019 by donnot
๐ŸŒŸ how, exactly, ๐ŸŒ 
630 words ➥ Friday, August 31, 2018 by donnot
โ‹ฏ and now ๐ŸŽ
625 words ➥ Thursday, August 31, 2017 by donnot
๐ŸŒœ how, exactly, ๐ŸŒ›
901 words ➥ Wednesday, August 31, 2016 by donnot
ยพ gratitude ยพ
688 words ➥ Monday, August 31, 2015 by donnot
โˆ i will greet today with HOPE, โˆ
609 words ➥ Sunday, August 31, 2014 by donnot
ยฟ do i fully appreciate โ€ฆ
602 words ➥ Saturday, August 31, 2013 by donnot
โ€ข recovery has given me freedom โ€ข
688 words ➥ Friday, August 31, 2012 by donnot
โ‡‘ sometimes, though, in the daily routine, i lose track of โ‡‘
533 words ➥ Wednesday, August 31, 2011 by donnot
ฮฑ the fellowship has given me much more than simple abstinence ฯ‰
382 words ➥ Friday, August 31, 2007 by donnot
ฯ‰ facing this day with gratitude ฮฑ
371 words ➥ Wednesday, August 31, 2005 by donnot
today i will face the day with HOPE
134 words ➥ Tuesday, August 31, 2004 by donnot

Tao Te Ching

☯ The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao ☯

The Tao Teh King, or The Tao and Its Characteristics
by Lao-Tse
Translated by James Legge

Book 1

2) Wherever a host is stationed, briars and thorns spring up. In the
sequence of great armies there are sure to be bad years.