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🥺 before getting clean, 🤟

Posted: Tue, Jul 14, 2026 11:26:43 AM

a meaningful relationship was one that got me what i wanted and more importantly when i wanted it. that did not instantly change when i got clean and certainly not before i actually had some time in real recovery. for someone like myself, who vied relationships as transactional and zero-sum games, the metamorphosis into a loving caring and yes a partner in relationships was slow in coming and is still a work in process. to add anything to qualify that statement would minimize and diminish me. what i can say, is that i have meaningful and deep relationships in my life today. in those relationships i accept my partners exactly as they are and love them for who they are, not despite who they happen to be today. the place i still struggle, is new relationships, especially those that i am forming on a social level at the cigar shop. there are many of my customers i do not mind sitting down to chat with, there are some i actually like and have fun with and there are others who i really do not want in my life, beyond selling them a cigar. separating them out and allowing everyone involved to be who they are is the difficult part of my new social milieu. as challenging as it may feel, it is a task i feel that i can succeed at, if i practice my program of recovery.
this morning as i sat after a less than restful night of sleep, what kept coming up was the notion that i have to get moving on all sorts of stuff and i do not have the desire to do so. among those tasks i have little desire to do, is to start writing on my FOURTH STEP again, going over the relationships i have in my life. when i wrote my first FOURTH Step, i had much fewer relationships in my life and none that are as deep and equal as the ones i have today. that was a quick bit that i got through quickly. when i was writing my list of relationships out, i kept adding more and more and most of them are issue free and just a part of my daily living. i probably can go through them just as quickly as before and yet, here i sit waiting for the impetus to get moving again. the problem, at least IMHO, is i do not feel the pain of sitting still and as a result lack the desire to do anything to move forward.
right here and right now i am more focused on getting my sleep cycle corrected and my body ready to run again. spiritually and mentally i am doing more that just okay and that is more than likely the problem limiting my desire. if i want to keep the balance i have today, i know that a bit of writing perhaps before bedtime is more than likely the direction i need to take. i do know that just for today i accept that i still have issues forming deep relationships and the relationship with myself needs to be revised. all i have to do, is the next right thing.

∞ DT ∞


Another Look

This day in older entries

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🏁 a benefit of recovery. 🏁
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🚀 enjoying the benefits 🚿
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✺ lasting recovery ✺
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∫ enjoying the benefits ∫
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¢ an ** inside job ** ¢
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¾ acceptance from others and society is nice, ¾
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⁄ i know that looking good is NOT enough ⁄
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602 words ➥ Wednesday, July 14, 2010 by donnot
δ my life starts to look normal -- just by removing the drugs δ
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ω lasting recovery is not found in acceptance from others …
380 words ➥ Monday, July 14, 2008 by donnot
δ acceptability in the eyes of the world is a benefit of recovery; δ
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looking good
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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 2

2) (The master of it) anticipates things that are difficult while
they are easy, and does things that would become great while they
are small. All difficult things in the world are sure to arise from
a previous state in which they were easy, and all great things from
one in which they were small. Therefore the sage, while he never does
what is great, is able on that account to accomplish the greatest
things.