Overcoming The Pain

[Ann]

You are reading from the book Touchstones.

Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.
--Helen Keller

When a man looks at his life and at the lives of others, it is clear that pain is part of life. We cannot escape this tragic truth; our growth and our wholeness must include it because our recovery stresses honesty. In our old way of living, we may have been bitter. Many of us felt sorry for ourselves. Some of us cursed God and wasted time in our self-centeredness, thinking life was especially unfair to us. Life is not fair; it just is. It is left to us to choose how we will respond.

People's responses to life inspire us. We not only acknowledge the pain, but we see the heroic lives of others around us. They met their limitations and went forward with a willing spirit and faith. Today we can be grateful for the progress we have made in overcoming our suffering. We have friends who give us the joy of human contact. We have choices and possibilities where we never saw them before. We have a growing self-respect as men.

I accept the reality of life, and I will respond with faith in the choices I make today.

[Ann]

I accept the reality of life, and I will respond with faith in the choices I make today.

The loss of my son to addiction is a daily source of pain for me, hurting a place in my heart that just cannot seem to heal. But I cannot live in that pain or plan my life around that pain, it would be a waste of my energy and of God's gifts to me.

So I pray for my son, and seek support to help me find a better way, a healthier way and most definitely a happier way to live. Choosing to go on with my life is not turning my back on my son, it's turning my back on the pain and the darkness and going forward in faith and in light. And in that light I find hope, that one day he too will step out of his darkness.

I have a choice, and I since I am alive, I choose to live well.

Hugs
Ann