The people on this board know how it feels to watch the destruction of our own lives. We have watched relationships split up. We have kissed our jobs goodbye. We have watched wealth fly out of our pockets. We have watched families splinter into dysfunctional chaos. We have had our physical and mental health rot. We have watched love either still-born or murdered by stupidity or mistakes. We find a common bond. We are normal people who were seduced by alcohol.
Blindness regarding the damage that alcohol often brings seems abnormal to me. It’s like living in a war zone with bullets flying all around and saying “none of these have hit me, so I’m not involved.” I’m not trying to blame to innocent people. I want to clarify what a normal reaction should involve when considering alcohol. Some bleed, some don’t. Some die, some don’t.
All of us can look back to when we were younger, less thoughtful, or more impetuous and repeat the words that have been spoken a trillion times “if only I knew then what I know now.” If anyone in the rest of the world could ever forgive any one of us, it will begin with us forgiving ourselves.
Hope comes from our own minds. The world may judge us, but, while sober, we can grow, learn, love, notice and see. We can forgive ourselves and forgive everyone around us for being human.