I recall as though it were today when I decided to put down the bottle and syringes and get sober. I was sitting in a park wondering what I was going to do with my life. I'd owned businesses at one time. I'd owned homes. I'd been married. I'd traveled and sometimes enjoyed life.
But I - sooner or later - drank enough - and used enough drugs - that I lost everything. And this isn't something I did once. I repeated this pattern over and over for nearly 40 years. I'd start a business. Enjoy success, then somehow talk myself into getting high. I was always trying to fill that empty space inside me and the only way I could do dit was to drown myself in alcohol and heroin and whatever else was available. And this was my pattern into my early fifties.
But sitting in that park, I ended up looking at my options. I'd be sent back to prison. Go to a mental hospital. Or go to a detox and get sober. I was in so much pain that I chose the latter. I found a free detox, stayed there for 11 days, then found a halfway house that would accept me with no money. It was one of the wiser things I'd done in my life.
When I went to that halfway house I had only the clothes I was wearing. No Money. No car. No job. And no phone numbers of people who would talk to me. But yet getting sober was like having a light turned on in a dark room. I found some entry level work. I bought a used bicycle. And things kept getting better from there. Eventually I decided to start another business, a halfway house.
Even though I had no investors or money, I was able find someone who'd give me the credit to buy three beat up old houses. Once more I was on a path to success.
And I attribute every bit of my success to that decision made in that park over 31 years ago. Getting sober and staying sober brought me to where I am today - living a peaceful life where I look forward every day to living free of the bondage of substances,
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