Year 31

31 Years clean and sober, WOW. How did I do it. Thursday June 25 was my 31st anniversary. Amazed every time I think about it and the journey to this point. Not all has been good, or bad, some has been very bad, and some very good.

I do not believe in “drunkalogs”, so I will not bore you with mine. It is the same as everyone’s. I drank, I got drunk. I got in to some kind of trouble. Not every time however every time I was in trouble of some kind I had been drinking. What I will talk about is my recovery. I consider myself to be a “Recovered” addict. and that is correct “Recovered”, not “a recovering addict”!

Ya what happened that I am a Recovered Addict. Years of work. Not easy but simple. Attending 12 Step programs for the first 5 years. I noticed that my recovery was not getting better and in fact was going backwards. What was up with this. Is not, AA/NA considered to be the best at getting people clean and sober? Well for me it was not. I noticed that there were people that told the same story week after week after week with many years sober. Yet it seemed to me that they were not happy being sober. Wanting more than to be one of those “old farts” when I had over 20 years plus I wanted to be happy sober.

Being told that I was bouncing off walls at work by co-workers. I was in a very real sense crazy. Not realizing just how bad I was.Although I still attending some AA meetings though not like I was at first, 2 a day or more. I might attend once a week. Having started my training to become a counselor by this time and was working at a Detox/Treatment center in Denver, however I was a very new counselor. A co-worker gave me the name and number of her therapist. It worked She saved my life and started me on a 31 year odyssey of therapy. Not because I am still crazy, but sane and wanting to stay that way.

December 21 2014, I committed a felony. I won’t go in to the details here as it is not important to the story. What is important is what I did to continue with my sobriety. I pestered a therapist every month until I got an appointment for February, 19, 2015, and I found a church around the same time maybe even sooner. The story if how I found St. Paul’s Episcopal Church is interesting one that I will talk about at a later time.

While the Therapist was/is great, I said to him and others that he was an Angel incarnate, finding St. Paul’s helped me more than anything else. I had found a “home”. I was led to it by my chiropractor of all people however, as it turned out she was the Priest’s daughter. Coming Home to God was the best think that could have happened to me. I was with people who believed and showed me the way to salvation through Jesus Christ. I have since St. Paul’s I have attended 4 other churches and with only one exception found the pure LOVE of Christ within the walls and with the people there.