Each and everyday I find others, like myself, talking about why they’re here. And that’s to never ever drink alcohol again. I know I never wanted to go back to alcohol, when I was finally freed of it’s hold on me.
There’s no question in my mind about what was wrong with me, or alcoholics like myself. I have a disease. I’m, what Dr. Carl Jung called that young man in the Chapter There Is A Solution, a chronic alcoholic. The minute I read that it hit me in the center of my being. That was me.
I remember, once again, that conversation with a doctor down in Washington, who worked with alcoholics. He told me that the proof of disease within us could be found in families, where there would be a skip generation of alcoholics drinking. And then the next generation the drinking alcoholics would be right back. He had been doing this for years, treating and studying.
Over time in here, I have found that, when we stop talking and thinking about our staying sober a day at a time, some individuals go back to drinking again. I know I never want to do that. So my old sponsor, and other old timers, like his widow, who had 57 years of sobriety, when she died, told me near the end of her life that I needed to practice focusing on staying sober a day at a time.
I know each and everyday I need to begin my day focusing my thoughts on this. To begin by trying to practice this spiritual way of life we have been told we must live, if we want to stay sober.
I’m here to stay in this day and not wander off in my head into tomorrow, or the future. I have learned, as so many others have told me, that, when I allow my mind to project into the future, I can find myself getting pulled down into anxiety, a negative attitude. I begin to think about what has happened in the past. So I’m no longer staying in the day, but living in the past and the future. A perilous place to be.
And that’s what I was thinking about at the moment. It’s a reminder to me that I need to stay in touch with my Higher Power and the memories of all those, who have helped me to stay sober. And for me to be grateful for all I have been given, as a result of working this program into my life…a day at a time.