by Paul S. (Punanai 2011)
Ed. note: This lovely paean to recovery is one of the gems from our TGIF vault, originally published on September 27, 2013. It is featured in the Growth and Change volume of Renascent’s Road to Recovery anthology series. To get your own personal copies of Road to Recovery and for more information, visit https://renascent.ca/old/books.
To my beautiful brothers and sisters who struggle …
…. know that you are never alone. While you may feel that no one could possibly be in more pain, in more trouble or more desperate than you … there are countless of us who have been there and know what you are going through. Grab the hand that reaches for you, for it desires to help you beyond measure.
To my beautiful brothers and sisters who struggle …
… see that powerlessness and surrender do not mean weakness. Strength comes from our ability to see that we need help and that our struggle to control things is only a wasted effort. When we give our will and our lives over to the care of a Higher Power, we are tapping into a power – a power that is beyond measure.
To my beautiful brothers and sisters who struggle …
… recognize that you are a sick person getting well, not a bad person getting good. Our actions may have been poor and our judgement lacking during our drinking days, but no one has the right to make us feel less than. You are finding the path to wellness and recovery – and the joy a life of sobriety brings is beyond measure.
To my beautiful brothers and sisters who struggle …
… learn that you are worthy of everything wonderful that is due to you. You have worth in this world, and you are needed by us. Your light is unique, your talents one-of-a-kind and your capacity to grow is limitless. Your usefulness to this world is beyond measure.
To my beautiful brothers and sisters who struggle …
… do this only for you and you alone. Do not take this on for anyone other than you. To do so is futile. Many lives have been lost in the name of appeasement and kowtowing. Recovery is an act that may at first seem selfish, but is selfless ever more. Being true to what the Creator meant us to be, sober, is a gift to others that is beyond measure.
To my beautiful brothers and sisters who struggle …
… remember that your life was not always like this. You had interests – things that captured your imagination and captivated your spirit, that made the music in your soul ring loudly throughout your life. Drinking killed ambition and took you away from you. Transforming your life takes time, but is a journey that is beyond measure.
To my beautiful brothers and sisters who struggle …
… be aware that wherever you go, you are there. We cannot escape ourselves as much as we cannot escape gravity. You are uncovering your inner beauty through stripping away what doesn’t serve you. You are removing the grime that took the shine off your once glimmering soul, a soul whose purpose is to gleam onto others in ways that is beyond measure.
To my beautiful brothers and sisters who struggle …
… know that alcohol is not the problem, but the solution. And a poor solution at that to what ails us, which is essentially mental, physical and spiritual in nature. Not being able to touch our own skin from within drives us to try and plug the God-sized hole inside for years and years. And it never works. That need for love and acceptance within us that we find in Him is quenched beyond measure.
To my beautiful brothers and sisters who struggle …
… understand that things get worse, and never better. But no matter how down far the scale you go, there is always hope. There is always a chance to catch the old fire of our spirits that were dulled by the thoughts in our mind, the bottle and the ego that told us that next time, things will be different. The power of delusional thinking is dangerous beyond measure.
To my beautiful brothers and sisters who struggle …
… see that you weren’t meant to suffer the way you suffer. We weren’t meant to hurt and be hurt the way we have. We weren’t created to feel that life would be better if we just escaped through death by our own hand. We weren’t put on this earth to plunge solely into darkness. The amount of freedom and relief we can find in recovery is beyond measure.
To my beautiful brothers and sisters who struggle …
