Sober Skaters

UncleMike · Professional Advisor Forum Moderator

THE VIEW FROM THE TRENCH

Hindsight is a wonderful thing; now that I have some 6+ years of sobriety the view is quite good. That is because I am standing on level ground looking at the world.

In the trench all I could see was the muddy walls of the trench. I could have looked up and gotten a glance of the sky but my head was pointed down focused on the shovel I was using to deepen the trench I was standing in. My addiction kept telling me that if I kept digging I would eventually dig my way out of all my problems. My view was looking deeper and darker; my back was breaking from all the shoveling I was doing, and yet I could not stop shoveling.

Then someone said, “All you have to do is stop digging”. What a concept, that I could control my environment, all I had to do was stop digging. The next thing I noticed was that I could see over the side of the trench, I wasn’t as deep as I thought I was, with a little effort I could climb over the edge and up on to level ground. And as long as I didn’t take a backward step I would not fall back into the trench.

I was free, I could see the world around me not the wall of mud, I could smell the roses and not the mud. My view reached to the horizon, not a narrow slot in the ground. Now all I have to do is trudge the road of happy destiny, which means going forward and my life would get better. But if I decided to go backwards I would surely fall back into that trench.
There was no guarantee that going forward would mean that the world was wonderful and all good things would come my way, but if I went backward I was guaranteed that my life would come apart faster than I could handle.

So I stand here on the edge of the trench setting my goals toward the horizon and the future. I don’t know where it will lead me but I do know it has to be better than that damn trench.

Thanks for letting me share

soberskater · Head Ex-Lush In Charge

Thanks for sharing that Mike, so true and awesome! Wink

Roger "Doc". Cool