I have been clean for:
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๐Ÿ—ฆ i need ๐Ÿ—ง

Posted: Fri, Jan 24, 2025 06:51:09 AM

willingness every day, even when i think i **got** this recovery gig down. this morning, as i sat, i considered what it meant for me to practice willingness today, after a few days clean, in a row. well, that is a minimization, as i am approaching a number of days that was well beyond the realm of possibilities, or so i believed, when i first decided to become willing enough to adopt a program of recovery. more on what that number happens to be in two days or so. anyhow, what willingness looks like today, is not all that different from what it looked like, way back when, other than back then, staying clean seemed to be beyond me.
when i was merely abstinent, i was willing enough to do whatever it took to comply with the conditions that kept me freely walking the streets. when i had “killed my number,” the plan was to return to a life of using, after all, i was not hurting anyone else, and i was clearly miserable staying clean. that misery and my lack of willingness to work a program, led to a thousand miles away from home, in a basement apartment , with a sack of my favorite dope, and not enough hours to flush it out of my system. i have to admit, that on that night, i was willing to do anything in order to not end up with a consequences. that was not my first experience with white knuckle recovery, but it became my last. my foxhole prayers tin the wee hours of that fateful morning, opened the door to a willingness to at least try a recovery program, for real. landing in a single fellowship, owning that i was an addict and asking someone to sponsor me, was my reaction to that experience. i was willing enough to do whatever it took.
that willingness turned into developing a daily recovery routine, part of which is starting off my day owning the fact that i am an addict and i require a force greater than my addiction to stay clean, just for today. as a former “wake and baker,” preparing for my day with a bit of recovery under my belt, was not all that hard to do. even today, when i consider that maybe, just maybe, today i can skip that routine, i think back and realize that as long as there was something in the stash, i “needed” to “take the edge off” of the day, before it even got rolling. my recovery routine, when i practice it on a daily basis, does that exact same thing, i get a bit of serenity and balance before diving into the real world.
i do not stay clean out of fear or superstition. i stay clean because it continues to work for me, making me a better fit, in a world that still baffles and confuses me. that world includes taking care of myself and those i love, by being a better person that i may have been yesterday. it means that i am willing to put my recovery first and allow everything else to fall into its proper place, even when i am unsure of what that place may be. when i practice a tad of willingness, everything else, is a piece of cake and i “get” another day clean, just for today.

∞ DT ∞


Another Look

This day in older entries

๐ŸŒ showing up ๐ŸŒž
435 words ➥ Saturday, January 24, 2026 by donnot
๐Ÿ˜’ reconnecting to ๐Ÿ˜
454 words ➥ Tuesday, January 24, 2023 by donnot
๐Ÿคจ showing up ๐Ÿคจ
445 words ➥ Monday, January 24, 2022 by donnot
๐ŸŒฉ hostile, resentful, ๐ŸŒช
448 words ➥ Sunday, January 24, 2021 by donnot
๐Ÿค” losing any ๐Ÿคจ
614 words ➥ Friday, January 24, 2020 by donnot
๐Ÿ‘ฃ my connection ๐Ÿ‘ฃ
408 words ➥ Thursday, January 24, 2019 by donnot
๐ŸŽซ closed off ๐ŸŽซ
578 words ➥ Wednesday, January 24, 2018 by donnot
โ‰” strengthen my โ‰•
599 words ➥ Tuesday, January 24, 2017 by donnot
โ™– from isolation โ™œ
662 words ➥ Sunday, January 24, 2016 by donnot
โ‡’ addiction isolated me โ€ฆ
666 words ➥ Saturday, January 24, 2015 by donnot
โŠฅ i am developing FAITH that my life can improve, โŠฅ
685 words ➥ Friday, January 24, 2014 by donnot
โˆž as i went further and further in active addiction โˆž
497 words ➥ Thursday, January 24, 2013 by donnot
โˆˆ i am a part of the life around me โˆˆ
487 words ➥ Tuesday, January 24, 2012 by donnot
ยน hostile, resentful, self-centered, and self-seeking, ยน
585 words ➥ Monday, January 24, 2011 by donnot
ฮฑ my connection with the world, and with reality itself, was severed. ฯ‰
397 words ➥ Wednesday, January 24, 2007 by donnot
โˆž working my program to strengthen my connection to my world โˆž
520 words ➥ Tuesday, January 24, 2006 by donnot
โˆž connections โˆž
301 words ➥ Monday, January 24, 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 2

2) There is always One who presides over the infliction death. He
who would inflict death in the room of him who so presides over it
may be described as hewing wood instead of a great carpenter. Seldom
is it that he who undertakes the hewing, instead of the great carpenter,
does not cut his own hands!