I was talking to a newcomer to our program last week, and he asked a serious question. What he asked, essentially, was why he should even get sober? To go through the effort?
So I asked him why he came in. He said his probation officer told him that it was either our program or time in the County Jail.
"And jail didn't appeal to you? I asked him.
"This was my only choice," he replied.
"Not really," I told him. "Many people choose to be locked up rather than make the effort to change their lives."
He reflected for a while, as if examining his options.
Then I told him some of my own story. I, for many years, decided I'd rather be in jail than in a rehab somewhere trying to change my life. But then one day, I had a long conversation with myself while I was in a park sipping a bottle of rotgut wine. l knew I was either going to drink myself to death, or end up in a mental hospital, or return once again to prison. So I went to a detox and my life changed,
When I left that detox, I spent a year in a halfway house. It's too long of a story to tell here, but when I left that halfway house, I purchased a building and started my own program. I knew that working around addicts and alcoholics would help me stay sober, and it has - for 34 years now. But many more blessings came about.
After three or four years, I was back in the good graces of my family. I began to make investments in real estate and became financially free. I wasn't looking over my shoulder anymore, wondering if the police were going to pull me over. Yes, life still had its problems, but I found that being sober made them manageable.
The biggest blessing is that I can communicate with my children and grandchildren. I can have a relationship with them. And happiness, for me, is good relationships with others. And most of all - with my family.
After I talked with him for a while, I think he's going to stick around and try to make the changes he needs to live clean and sober. I wish him well.
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