Just for Today
Sunday, Aug. 19, 2012
“There are many things worse than dying, but is there any death worse than the progressive, self-induced slow suicide of the practicing alcoholic? The alcoholic suffers death many times over. Alcohol wrings the guts out of life, eats into the brain in such a way as to make the alcoholic blind to the truth. I served 12 years in prison, never suspecting that without alcohol I would not have been in prison at all. Had it not been for AA in prison …I’ll never know, but my educated guess is that I would not be alive today.” - Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd Edition, 1976, “They Lost Nearly All,” Ch 1 (“A Five-Time Loser Wins”), p 457.
Just for today, like the prison inmate in this personal story from the Big Book, I experienced the multiple deaths of a drinking alcoholic in the form of losses of family, friends, jobs and milestone experiences like a son’s or daughter’s wedding or birth of my own child, people and experiences that cannot be reclaimed. And, like this inmate, may not even yet do I realize that I may never have suffered those losses because of alcohol. But, today, I am sober and in recovery, and the Program has taught me to think now in terms of life because, in surrendering in Step One, I chose life over death. Now I must surrender the regrets and pain from those losses and anticipate whatever new life is yet to come. And whatever life has planned for me, I can do it now because I am sober - because I chose life. And our common journey continues. Just for today. - Chris M., 2012
Sunday, Aug. 19, 2012
“There are many things worse than dying, but is there any death worse than the progressive,
Just for today, like the prison inmate in this personal story from the Big Book, I experienced the multiple deaths of a drinking alcoholic in the form of losses of family, friends, jobs and milestone experiences like a son’s or daughter’s wedding or birth of my own child, people and experiences that cannot be reclaimed. And, like this inmate, may not even yet do I realize that I may never have suffered those losses because of alcohol. But, today, I am sober and in recovery, and the Program has taught me to think now in terms of life because, in surrendering in Step One, I chose life over death. Now I must surrender the regrets and pain from those losses and anticipate whatever new life is yet to come. And whatever life has planned for me, I can do it now because I am sober - because I chose life. And our common journey continues. Just for today. - Chris M., 2012
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