Hanging Out With Miracles

Whoa! I'll tell you something, I get up in the morning, well I call it morning...most NORMAL people would call 3:30am night time still! But I wake up and it takes about 10 minutes and my mind is going 100 mph.

This morning I was thinking about people who are just starting their journey in sobriety. Those of us that try and practice recovery a day at a time get a unique privilege: we get to watch people get reborn, sometimes right before our eyes. They're called miracles...

Most people who decide they are an addict/alcoholic aren't on a winning streak when the begin this process. For some, the courts are initiating this journey...for others they are so sick that they've been hospitalized either for treatment or for another medical problem...so needless to say when I first talk to someone who wants to find recovery they are usually a mess and that's putting it lightly.

Lord knows that I was a total train wreck when I started but I'll spare those details because I've covered them thoroughly here already Darkest Before The Dawn. But people come around in various states of despair: physically sick, emotionally at the end of their rope, their marriages are a wreck, they've tried to kill themselves, they are in trouble with the law...you name it. Like I said, nobody is on a winning streak, why else would they be in this position. Nope, most folks feel  pretty hopeless when they begin this journey...

But if they keep coming around, stay sober for awhile things begin to change. They start to look better for one! Half the time folks look like they are gonna drop dead right before your eyes and actually that isn't a joke because with some, it's possible. They're skin color is grey, they can be emaciated or bloated, shaky, bloodshot eyes and the one thing I notice right away...most stare down at the floor. Shame won't let them look anyone in the eye. I remember very well what THAT felt like and I hope I never, EVER forget it....

But then their life begins to slowly get better...that's what an infusion of HOPE will do to a persons spirits! And if they continue to work at it, stick with folks that have been there before well, the sky is the limit. They get better and start to have a life again. They can begin to clear away the wreckage of their previous lives and build a new one...

And that's the really cool part...watching someone who just a year ago wanted to die, start to really enjoy life again. That my friends is the miracle. I don't like throwing that word around because it's almost become a cliche but that's truly what it is.

So I get excited when I get up each day because I get to hang out w/miracles! Who wouldn't feel special about that!?

Have a wonderful Monday morning folks, more SSS later...