January 14, 1991, I was sitting in a detoxification facility in Mesa Arizona. I was homeless. I had seventy three cents in my pocket. I had no job and was addicted to heroin and alcohol – and anything else I could get my hands on.
So tomorrow I’ll be celebrating 21 years of sobriety. More than a quarter of my life I've lived sober and free of much of the insanity that consumed the first 51 years of my life.
Because I was in denial about my addictions I spent some 16 years in prisons and jails – including a stint in a mental institution. Over the years I lost businesses, was married and divorced twice. I lived a very unrewarding up-and-down existence.
The idea that I would one day be sober and successful wasn’t a dream for me. At one time my best case scenario is that I would die in my 40s, a victim of my disease like so many of my contemporaries. Instead, God intervened in my life and led me to sobriety.
After 11 days in that detoxification unit I was accepted at a halfway house in Mesa, Arizona. After a year in that program I was able to start my own recovery business. This has been a wonderful 21 years. I'm blessed with hundreds of friends and acquaintances. I have my family back in my life. Last month I married a wonderful woman with whom I'd been friends for seven years.
Tomorrow I have an opportunity to tell my story at a 12 step meeting that will be made up mostly of newcomers. And I hope my story will help them someday enjoy what I’ve enjoyed for the past 21 years.
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