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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 2

3) Therefore when the sovereign occupies his place as the Son of Heaven,
and he has appointed his three ducal ministers, though (a prince)
were to send in a round symbol-of-rank large enough to fill both the
hands, and that as the precursor of the team of horses (in the court-yard),
such an offering would not be equal to (a lesson of) this Tao, which
one might present on his knees.