Recovery Road

Almost two years ago, my friend Greg posted this on his Facebook wall.

I’d met him over fifteen years ago through my days of visiting San Francisco when I still lived in Chicago. We had an epic NYE in 1999, that NYE celebrating Y2K, not sure if the next day would actually happen. Over fifteen years later, I believe we will be fine.

Over the years, I lost touch with Greg, and recently reconnected with him when he moved back to the Bay Area.

I could not be more impressed or more in awe of his courage in sharing his journey, and taking action upon his life. For the record, he is just as much fun and just as awesome as I always remembered him.

Once upon a time, I used to: shoot heroin in Golden Gate Park with runaways, eat hundreds (thousands?) of hits of acid/ ecstasy, smoked rocks every day, bloody myself in fights, get arrested with unfortunate frequency, be a fugitive with 5 pending felonies, hate myself, contemplate suicide (and chicken out) every day…and then ten years ago today, I got sober, and began the most difficult/rewarding task of my life = living life without the aid of any mood or mind altering substances, no matter what. Today, I am granted a repreive from addiction, conditional upon my spiritual fitness. Today, I when I look in the mirror, I can say, “I know who you are, and I like you.”
When I first got sober, my mom (who had 15 years of sobriety at the time) told me it would take me 5 years to realize how far my head was up my ass…and then another 5 years to pull it out. Well, mom, today is 10 years…so here’s hoping I’m on schedule!

Thank you mom, dad, Steph, Rick, Rich, David, sponsors, sponsees, AA, NA, my small army of therapists, Landmark Education, my higher power, my amazing friends, and the millions of recovered addicts and alcoholics who blazed the trail before me. I could not have done this without all of you. Thank you!!!!!!

To which I responded onto his Facebook timeline…
“This is amazing; and I’m proud of you. Though our paths have only crossed but a handful of times – on both sides of your journey, I’m glad to know you. And the world is a better place. Keep on keepin’ on.”

Go Adventure. Go Travel. Go Live.

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