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🤡 a second chance 🤩

Posted: Mon, Nov 14, 2022 07:33:38 AM

was not the gift i thought i was getting when i got clean. nor was it the gift i expected when i finally came to recovery. i thought i was doing okay enough, sliding along the bottom of living and staying high and never expected to be looking back on those days from a distance of decades, wondering WTF took me so long to give up the fight and pick up a white. no matter how thick-headed and stubborn i may seem, i know that today, i am doing a whole lot more living and a whole lot less “just getting by.” i no longer accept that all i need to do is survive another day, although some days, surviving until bedtime, seems hard enough. i am more than a bit regretful that i wasted so much of my life in a drug-induced haze and i could spend my time commiserating about that, OR as i am choosing to do today, celebrate the life i have by living it to its fullest.
that does it for the bumper stickers and clichés, this morning. although i am in a very light mood and nothing heinous surfaced as i sat this morning. as i sit here considering my day, my week and the results of my Fantasy Football weekend, i am not displeased at all. sure i could be more financially secure, be more fit, thinner or even younger looking, but none of that is really all that important, at least in this very moment. as i stoup on the necessities for my life, cigars and coffee, i certainly can see that i am living a life that was never possible in the past. if i wanted to enjoy a cup of good coffee or a premium hand-rolled cigar, i would have needed to figure out who i was going to rip-off or what bill i would not be paying, in order to get what i wanted. the thought never entered my mind to dip into my “get high” stash of funds, as those were already spent, even if they were still burning a hole in my pocket. some days are just like that, stock up and hunker down, although i am not ready to hunker down today, as i really do not see a storm a-brewing on the horizon. i got the spiritual recharge i guess i needed from the brief exposure to convention and i had my best time for my weekly 10K trot yesterday, so all in all, i feel i am doing well today. oh yeah, wins in both Fantasy Football leagues will certainly cheer me up as well.
before i shut this down for the day and get out into this chilly November morning, i do have to say, that is is a privilege to be looking forward these days. as much as regretting my past may be a helpful tool for motivating me to live a program of recovery, it does not make me any brighter or lighter. i know cigars, coffee and Fantasy Football wins are not going to “cure” me, nor are they going to contribute to my journey towards becoming the person i may have always wanted to be, they certainly make the journey a bit more pleasant and give me a bit of a boost when things look too grim to continue.

∞ DT ∞


Another Look

This day in older entries

🔍 i have come 🔎
517 words ➥ Friday, November 14, 2025 by donnot
🕳 as i clean up 🕴
452 words ➥ Thursday, November 14, 2024 by donnot
😎 living a 🦄
492 words ➥ Tuesday, November 14, 2023 by donnot
🕺 more living 💃
431 words ➥ Sunday, November 14, 2021 by donnot
🤐 miserable existence 🤯
518 words ➥ Saturday, November 14, 2020 by donnot
🕭 little hope 🕯
597 words ➥ Thursday, November 14, 2019 by donnot
🏚 an exercise in survival 🏯
609 words ➥ Wednesday, November 14, 2018 by donnot
🌛 coming to understand 🌜
606 words ➥ Tuesday, November 14, 2017 by donnot
⦬ today it is ⦭
694 words ➥ Monday, November 14, 2016 by donnot
¢ not just surviving ¢
496 words ➥ Saturday, November 14, 2015 by donnot
≈ if i had died in active addiction, ≈
392 words ➥ Friday, November 14, 2014 by donnot
¡ **i would be better off dead!** ¿
525 words ➥ Thursday, November 14, 2013 by donnot
× the resurrection, which is the process of recovery, ×
568 words ➥ Wednesday, November 14, 2012 by donnot
↑ i am grateful to be alive ↑
604 words ➥ Monday, November 14, 2011 by donnot
♦ when i was using, my life became an exercise in survival ♦
592 words ➥ Sunday, November 14, 2010 by donnot
α in my active addiction, my hold on life was tenuous at best. α
669 words ➥ Friday, November 14, 2008 by donnot
α the more experience i gain in living, rather than merely existing, α
531 words ➥ Tuesday, November 14, 2006 by donnot
α celebrating life!??? ω
425 words ➥ Monday, November 14, 2005 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

4) (Those who) possessed the highest (sense of) propriety were (always
seeking) to show it, and when men did not respond to it, they bared
the arm and marched up to them.