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

โŠฅ the clean that comes from admitting โŠฅ

Posted: Wed, Jun 11, 2014 08:07:35 AM

the truth addiction rather than hiding or denying it. okay, i took a few liberties with the quote i lifted to better fit my world view, so sue me :)
i certainly could go into why i did what i did, however today is not a day where i feel i need to explain myself, suffice it to say, that the passage, altered as it is, is certainly an honest admission at how i look at this whole gig, at least right here and right now.
for me, the using life was not one of physical squalor. regardless of how low i went, how i broke i got, it was important to me to maintain appearances, so my space was always cluttered but not dirty and i did my damnedest to shower every day and wear clean clothes. other than long-sleeved shirts on ninety degree days, there were no outward signs of the squalor of active addiction in my life, however that charade ended when you got to see beneath the surface. as a result, i did my best to keep that inner squalor and decay hidden from the rest of the world, even as it was killing me and making me insane. so the whole gig of living clean, abstinent from drugs, as well as a caring loving and participating member of my life, was quite foreign and more than a bit uncomfortable for me. nevertheless, i wanted to stay out of prison and so i grudgingly complied with all the little things my peers suggested that i do, and here i am, 6100 days later, still doing the gig, so there must be something that is paying off.
that is it precisely, the payoff. i have heard repeated ad nauseum from many of my peers that they are “bottom-line” kind of people, and if there was no payoff, they would stop doing the gig. one of those members is currently out there messing up what is left of the life they built up across the span of days that is was paying off. they are a living example to me, of what i will become, once the decay and squalor start to creep into my inner being. not that they happen to be decayed and squalid, as they have not really talked to me for quite some time, but speaking from my own experience, being the cynic that i am, decay and squalor on the inside is certainly a path that would follow for me. i know where i came from,. the uncaring, selfish and self-centered prick that walked into the rooms, trying to figure out all the angles, is not that far away. the only thing that keeps that man at bay, is the program of recovery i have been given. it is not like i have two personalities or i am trying to suppress who i am. the person i was when i walked in here, is who i still am, however today i CHOOSE to live in a different manner and when i am not driven by a NEED to get high, amazing things happen.
one of those amazing things is that i become not only employable, but actually an asset to my employer, which sadly brings me to the end of this exercise this morning. i am running way late, to get top that job, so i will end with this. just for today, i am glad that the program of recovery has removed the inner squalor and decay that was once my existences and that today, i can choose to live in a different manner.

∞ DT ∞


Another Look

This day in older entries

๐ŸŒ when i am ๐ŸŒƒ
297 words ➥ Thursday, June 11, 2026 by donnot
๐Ÿ˜ต as i learn ๐Ÿ˜ต
538 words ➥ Wednesday, June 11, 2025 by donnot
๐Ÿ’ซ i practice ๐Ÿ’ซ
551 words ➥ Tuesday, June 11, 2024 by donnot
๐Ÿ approaching ๐Ÿ
458 words ➥ Sunday, June 11, 2023 by donnot
๐ŸŒฌ no reason ๐ŸŒซ
553 words ➥ Saturday, June 11, 2022 by donnot
๐Œš the manner ๐Œ
384 words ➥ Friday, June 11, 2021 by donnot
๐ŸŒฐ living clean ๐ŸŒฑ
309 words ➥ Thursday, June 11, 2020 by donnot
๐Ÿค’ the manner ๐Ÿคจ
658 words ➥ Tuesday, June 11, 2019 by donnot
๐Ÿคž no reason ๐Ÿคž
553 words ➥ Monday, June 11, 2018 by donnot
โ˜บ a new adventure โ˜ป
633 words ➥ Sunday, June 11, 2017 by donnot
๐Ÿ’ก living clean, ๐Ÿ‘€
900 words ➥ Saturday, June 11, 2016 by donnot
โˆ€ living clean โˆ€
628 words ➥ Thursday, June 11, 2015 by donnot
ฦ’ as i stay **clean** and work the Twelve Steps, ฦ’
630 words ➥ Tuesday, June 11, 2013 by donnot
โ‡’ i feel clean because i am living clean โ€”
880 words ➥ Monday, June 11, 2012 by donnot
ยฑ as i recover, i am gaining a new outlook on being clean.... ยฑ
610 words ➥ Saturday, June 11, 2011 by donnot
โŠฅ today, i have a chance to feel clean by living clean โŠฅ
419 words ➥ Friday, June 11, 2010 by donnot
โˆž **clean living** used to be just for the **squares.** โˆž
205 words ➥ Monday, June 11, 2007 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 2

3) Let him keep his mouth closed, and shut up the portals (of his
nostrils), and all his life he will be exempt from laborious exertion.
Let him keep his mouth open, and (spend his breath) in the promotion
of his affairs, and all his life there will be no safety for him.