Originally Posted by
firestorm090 
...after thirty years of wasting my life away with a bottle of booze stuck to my hand, should I really be grateful?
Good stuff Dallas.
Something I read in the Big Book (1st ed.
) something to the effect of "we don't want to forget the past nor close the door on it"..... Why?
One answer might be that sharing our past experience in our individual ESH helps another alcoholic... Identification and qualification. Important to be sure, but I don't think it stops there.
My own experience with this has been that those thirty years weren't wasted, and even if some or all of them were... even if to some extent... do I then live in regret???... well.... Hell No!... Actively living in regret/shame/guilt is just wasted energy.
Along the way I did some good things, some bad things, good times, bad times... But what can I say really? Well, I am damn grateful to have found a spiritual solution to one of my problems in life, alcoholism. And the big pleasant surprise... This solution helps me navigate all the other problems in my life, and appreciate (hmm... gratitude...
) all the good things.
Mark