After an experience in a doctor’s office today, I was reminded of a number of things, relating to my sobriety. I had to undergo a rather uncomfortable procedure in my ear, from something he told me I had probably picked up from the air someplace. And the treatment is not over, as the condition is ongoing.
What it brought to mind was the fact, that very often, along the road we’re traveling, we frequently find that we have to make some changes, which are sometimes uncomfortable and even painful, if we want to stay sober.
Besides my own grueling painful experience, the physician, who was treating me, I found out, had just suffered a horrific loss of his own. His youngest sister had recently been murdered by a jealous boyfriend.
I thought about my own experiences on this path I have walking. Losses which have come along in my life. Reversals of fortune. Changes I didn’t expect or welcome. Having to give up many old ideas that I had clung to over a lifetime. Having to discipline myself to rid my life of crippling character defects. Having to go through just the bumps in the road with which life provides us. A host of things we all encounter.
This is what always amazes me. That God always provides the grace and the people, who are there to help me along the way. Without God’s grace and others, who knows what would happen. Somehow I have always been provided with what I need to continue my sober life. And always I come out the other side changed by these “experiences”.
I’m not sure I always perform well. In fact, I have made a lot of mistakes along the way. But in the end, I find that I’m still sober. From all this, I have learned patience, tolerance, forbearance, gratitude, hope, faith, and a whole lot more, which has replaced what has been taken away. Gone is a lot of the arrogance, the overbearing pride, that air of superiority, all of which I brought in with me to this program.
What has been given to me is so much more. And the greatest gift has been there from the beginning. Sobriety.