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image credit: kees bruin

i really want to thank you.

that has been really bothering me for quite some time and so i thought it best to blog about it because it's a blog world issue. i feel much better about it today. hopefully ready to move on.

i spend many of my days speaking with people with substance use and abuse issues. i can't remember a time when i wasn't spending time with addicts anyway, so it makes sense that i have moved into this direction professionally. today was a day like many other days. i teach 2 dui classes and meet with a sponsee, and attend a 12 step meeting. some days it's invigorating and some days it's draining. today it was the former. i also had lunch with the first man i sponsored. he only made it to the 7th step with me and then we had a shift in philosophies and he moved on.

that was certainly a challenging time for me because i thought that i had let him down somehow and i wondered about my own capabilities as a sponsor in general. the 12step program is an apprenticeship program and one is expected to move from apprentice to journeyman and begin sharing knowledge and experience in troubleshooting life with new apprentices.

today, seeing and talking with him was a blessing. i was able to recognize that i had not failed. it wasn't about me and didn't need to be.(of course, i always like to make it about me.) this man is doing fine, he has been sober a couple of years and we will always have a bond. he has some struggles just like the rest of us experience, but he is on the road to recovery.

recovery.

recovery is home.

there's no place like recovery.

there's no place like recovery.

there's no place like recovery...