The Lucky Ones
“Alcoholism is the only disease that I know of where you can be more well after developing it than you were before you had it.” Stormy K.
Today, we are the lucky ones. I have been graced with the opportunity to share with you a great reminder of incredible importance. We are here to remember how lucky we truly are. I think that alcoholics and addicts are the luckiest people in the world. Alcoholism has become the mechanism of my wellness. Let me explain further:
I often heard Tombstone John say I didn’t have a drink in the second grade, but I sure could’ve used one. I related to that the first time that I heard it. I had worry and anxiety far before I was bending my elbow with drink. I was sick before I got sick. Alcoholism just made me sicker. To be more accurate, I had alcoholism before I started to drink.
I graduated nine treatment programs over 24 years before I was able to have continuous abstinence and spiritual growth. I was an incorrigible. I have become the poster child of why you shouldn’t give up on anybody. I was a lucky one.
When the student is ready, the teacher appears and not before. It happens in God’s Time, not ours. The fact that anybody recovers from alcoholism, a debilitating and horrible condition where nine out of 10 of its victims will die as a direct result of it, is more than luck. It is an actual miracle.
The silver lining in the cloud of alcoholism is that once we receive good treatment and develop good practice, we recover from it. We do more than recover from it. Before I sobered up, I was a selfish jerk. Today I’m not a selfish jerk and I’m reasonably happy most of the time. If that is not luck, grace or destiny, I don’t know what is.
As I look at myself today, I can gratefully give myself credit for not being that once unlovely creature. I still must continue to grow, and with God’s help, I will. But, I have made a lot of progress and we must give credit where credit is due. At the end of the day, my growth is from from the grace of God.
The moral of this story is that if I never developed alcoholism, I never would’ve learned all of these things and would not be living the dream as I do today. I am better than I ever was and getting better every day.
If you are in recovery or thinking about entering recovery today, you have already started this process. Do not wait for luck to find you. See what happens if you are willing to accept that there may be a destiny for you beyond your vision and that if you have the courage to pursue it, you might find something you can’t possibly imagine right now and it might be pretty darn nifty. Be grateful for your alcoholism and see what the heck happens next.
Thank you
Jim
James A. Francetich is a freelance writer and author. The opinions expressed are solely of the author and do not represent any community based recovery programs, private or public entities or any governmental agencies.