I have been clean for:
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Surrender meme Work the steps meme

🌡 using almost 🏴

Posted: Mon, Feb 1, 2021 06:51:03 AM

anything to alienate and disqualify myself from a life of active recovery. it is one of the saddest facts of my life that i did not want to be in recovery and even when **sentenced** to this life i spent a boatload of time and energy, trying to get out, before i succumbed to peer pressure and found what i did not6 know i was seeking. today, sitting several “just-for-todays” clean, i find it remarkable that i made it through those early days of mere abstinence and found my way to the manner of living that i embrace today. the attraction of a life worth living finally out-weighed the siren call of altering my consciousness with a little dab to do me and when i look back, i am grateful that no one told me to get lost, when i was trying to get away from recovery and get away with scraping the bottom.
even in those early days, i had allies and peers who marched along with me. some of them came and went, others died and some are still part of my life today:

Jay T.
Congrats on Twenty-three (23) years clean.
I am glad the 3rd time was the charm.

if all goes as planned, i will get to spend some time with my friend and peer, this afternoon, that is, of course, out of my control.
i have to admit that i am way out of my league these days, as i am attempting to guide one of the men that call me their sponsor, through the FOURTH STEP, without a net as it were. i am relying on the POWER that fuels my recovery to give me the answers, instead of using a guide set down in printed form, that has been addict-tested and approved. my FEAR in this, is that it is my head that is leading this process and not my heart. in that “disconnect” i will miss something crucial and deprive my friend, brother and peer, something essential to this part of the recovery process. the only thing i can say for certain, is that i am doing the best i can and maybe, just maybe the four times i have been through a fourth step and the dozens of men i have guided through a fourth step, will provide me all that i need, to give him what he needs as well.
as to the other men who call me their sponsor? well i am not sure that i will fly without a net through their Fourth Steps. i think i will take what is written and create a packet that fits what i “feel” needs to be addressed. this process is teaching me that i do have a bit of value, that my experience is worthwhile and i can fly closer to the sun, without getting too close and survive. as i prepare to hit the streets as it were and burn off my last hour of on-call, i know for certain that i may be different than many of my peers but i share a common purpose with them, to live in a manner that i can be proud of, just for today.

∞ DT ∞


Another Look

This day in older entries

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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

1) Who knows his manhood's strength,
Yet still his female feebleness maintains;
As to one channel flow the many drains,
All come to him, yea, all beneath the sky.
Thus he the constant excellence retains;
The simple child again, free from all stains.

Who knows how white attracts,
Yet always keeps himself within black's shade,
The pattern of humility displayed,
Displayed in view of all beneath the sky;
He in the unchanging excellence arrayed,
Endless return to man's first state has made.

Who knows how glory shines,
Yet loves disgrace, nor e'er for it is pale;
Behold his presence in a spacious vale,
To which men come from all beneath the sky.
The unchanging excellence completes its tale;
The simple infant man in him we hail.