Wide eyed, the man looked to me and said,
“You are one of the living promises, I know you know which one.”
I didn’t know which he was referring to, but I felt myself start to tear up. I asked which he meant.
He said…
“No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others.”
It had me shook.
I was asked to speak at a 12 step meeting. I approached the podium and shared my story (well, the 25 minute version) of what happened, how I got sober, and most importantly, what it’s been like the last 14 years; what sobriety has truly taught me and how its changed my life. These are gifts far greater than “just not using”.
When you speak anywhere, you go to share a message that may help someone else. You go to connect.
You go because someone in that room could have just come in off the streets and are minutes away from going back.
Someone could be in the darkest chapter of their lives. Someone could feel like no matter how hard they try to be seen or understood, it is impossible.
So, we share ourselves honestly, so that others may know they are not alone, that there is an end to suffering, and the blessings don’t stop there.
Not even close.
Before I continue, I will share The Promises in full.
Let me also make a disclaimer:
I am in no way a spokesperson or representative of any program of recovery. If you seek recovery yourself, do not base anything about me or my personality onto the experience you think you will have. Everyone gets what they need with an open mind.
Within these communities, you will find every type of person and personality imaginable, so do not let anything you find distasteful about me be a reflection on the community. I am only one of millions.
You will find rock bottom junkies that have never known anything outside of jails, prisons and street life, and sitting next to them you will find a millionaire CEO with multiple houses across the world.
Why?
We are all the same in that room, because vice and torment know no bounds. They know no limits. They do not discriminate.
And the love and connection and hope that we generate by means of shared pain, shared hope, and connection — that knows no bounds either. It does not discriminate.
The Promises
“If we are painstaking about this phase of our development we will be amazed before we are halfway through. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. We will comprehend the word Serenity and we will know peace.
No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows.
Self-seeking will slip away. Our whole attitude and outlook on life will change, fear of people and economic insecurity will leave us. We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us.
We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves. Are these unrealistic promises? We think not. They are being fulfilled among us sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will materialize if we work for them.”
Breaking the Inner Algorithm
I have been suffering a lot the last few months. Between tragic events and working through my own inner suffering algorithms, strange events can occur.
The following is a personal story and lesson of how to break the inner algorithms we have running in our minds, often without conscious awareness.
That heaviness, that feeling of your life being on a loop, that feeling of being up against a pressure so great you feel eclipsed by it, that’s what I’m here to address breaking out of.
The rest will be for patrons of this publication, mostly due to some sensitive information that I don’t want available in a google search. If you bare no malice, are kind hearted, and are not a certain someone who knows they shouldn’t be on this website, feel free to proceed.
Otherwise, I state as this juncture by the power of the written word — may no one cross this line who knows they shouldn’t. If you do, may you bare whatever consequences The Great All, the Devine Justice of Nature, sees fit.
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