A Variety of Thoughts About Everything

 Solitude is most definitely a double edged sword. And which side is cutting one depends entirely where one is in life. If one is in a place of Being Insecure, not in touch with Who They Are as a Human Being, and generally, not in every case, and maybe not even in the majority cases, when one is younger, then solitude can be a bad place. It will then be a place where every single mistake, every single time that one could have been a better human, every time that one felt bad about themselves, will be repeated on a loop thus reinforcing ones negative self image. Also, in my experience, every single slight, trick played on one, nasty remark, all the things that will make one mad, will also play on a loop. And ones stress level will go thru the roof and one is hating everyone and everything. So, one is either feeling extremely bad about who they are, or one is feeling the euphoria of negativity that in anger and hate. A very toxic mix. And there is also what a friend of mine called "...

 I was in a Zoom meeting today. And the speaker was just filled, overflowing with, Gratitude. It was coming out in everything that was there. The Voice, the Words, the Body Language, everything, was just exuding Gratitude. And Joy. So much Joy. And, while the words were important, and very effective in telling a story of addiction and recovery, it was everything else that conveyed the important message. That  not only is recovery possible, that recovery can be great. And I needed to remember that today. I have a lot of internal stuff going on and I am wrapped way too tight inside my own head. I could, and do, call it, getting lost in the weeds of life. And I forget how wonderful my life is. Especially in comparison to how it was the day I walked into my first meeting. And later, when I made the choice to stop using and try doing it someone else's way instead of my own. Along the way I have had many moments. Some Great, some Good, some Meh, some Ugh, and some Terrible. For all ...

In 1992 the the young Governor  of Arkansas, William Jefferson Clinton, ran for the Democratic Nomination for President. He got it. And then he went on despite several nasty scandals, to win the Office of the President. Four years later he won re-election and thus was in office for eight years. Again, surviving some nasty scandals. During his first campaign, in 1992, he had an internal motto. He had it plastered all over his campaign headquarters. That motto was "It's the Economy stupid". It was a way to keep everyone focused on the theme of the campaign so they would not veer off of it to far. I have taken that and reworded it to keep us all focused on the main problem with our country now so we do not get lost in the weeds of the symptoms of the problem. And one of the most visible symptoms is the Orange Felon. And people feel that if we could just get rid of him then everything would go back to normal and we could undo the damage that he has done to our country. I real...

 Here is another thing that we hear around Recovery meetings a lot. Principles Before Personalities. Seems pretty straight forward on the surface. And yet, like so many other things, more will be revealed. To begin, when I showed up in Recovery I had only one principle. Get mine. I was Self Centered and could only think about "My Needs". I had no Empathy or understanding that other people existed in their own lives and did not exist to cater to me. So the first thing that had to happen was that I needed to learn some new principles to live by. And the first ones that I needed to learn were ones that are directly mentioned in our Basic Text. It is in the part in the beginning of the chapter called "How It Works". And it says  "There is one thing more than anything else that will defeat us in our recovery; this is an attitude of indifference or intolerance toward spiritual principles. Three of these that are are indispensable are Honesty, Open-mindedness, and Wil...

This is something that one hears in the 12 Step Recovery world a lot. Surrender to win. And when I was first starting my journey of Recovery I could not grasp this concept in the slightest. I could somewhat understand it intellectually. I just was baffled by it on any level deeper than that. Fortunately I had people who insisted that I use a Dictionary and look things up. And yes, I started this journey before the Internet was really a thing. I had to buy and actual Dictionary. Today we are going to use Dictionary.com to look these words up. Surrender: verb (used with object) to yield (something) to the possession or power of another; deliver up possession of on demand or under duress. to surrender the fort to the enemy; to surrender the stolen goods to the police. to give (oneself ) up, as to the police. to give (oneself ) up to some influence, course, emotion, etc.  He surrendered himself to a life of hardship to give up, abandon, or relinquish (comfort, hope, etc.). Synonyms :...