{"id":301,"date":"2008-02-13T08:14:01","date_gmt":"2008-02-13T04:14:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nedsnotebook.com\/?p=301"},"modified":"2008-02-13T08:14:01","modified_gmt":"2008-02-13T04:14:01","slug":"just-a-second","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nedsnotebook.com\/wp\/2008\/02\/13\/just-a-second\/","title":{"rendered":"Just a second"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The pause that refreshes. The old Coke ad. But I was thinking about that: the pause that refreshes. Or, put it another way, the pause that restores.<\/p>\n<p>That really was what it was like for me, when I came in. I was offered a pause from my drinking. I had never really had that kind of moment for over twenty years of constant drinking. For me it was a miracle, though I doubt I appreciated it at the time. Only looking back can I truly see what happened to me.<\/p>\n<p>The word &#8220;refresh&#8221; means to restore to new vigor and spirit. Thinking about it now, I am amazed that this actually happend to me. Who am I that I should have had such an opportunity, when others just like me never did? Talk about being cut down to size and humbled by the experience of such a happening. It wasn&#8217;t because I deserved it. I can only say I was fortunate.<\/p>\n<p>The people in the program at that time offered me the hope that I could be restored to sanity. From the insanity of repeating over and over the awful spectre of that first drink, I was told that all I had to do was acquire a higher power in my life, who could do what I could not do for myself.  I was offered the choice to depend on something greater than me and I would never have to drink again. As confused and sick as I was from the constant use and abuse of alcohol, I grabbed onto that idea and have never let go of it. I somehow knew that this was a place of last chances. I really didn&#8217;t believe I would get another one. I still don&#8217;t.<\/p>\n<p>Today, as we talked about the First Traditon, about our common welfare coming first, I was reminded of what is at stake for all of us. I was reminded of this second step. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. I know that I do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The pause that refreshes. The old Coke ad. But I was thinking about that: the pause that refreshes. Or, put it another way, the pause that restores. That really was what it was like for me, when I came in. I was offered a pause from my drinking. I had never really had that kind &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/nedsnotebook.com\/wp\/2008\/02\/13\/just-a-second\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Just a second&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nedsnotebook.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nedsnotebook.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nedsnotebook.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nedsnotebook.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nedsnotebook.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nedsnotebook.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nedsnotebook.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nedsnotebook.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nedsnotebook.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}