I remember as if it were yesterday that
very night in August 1990, I spent in rehab
after a full day of my family pulling an
intervention on me, calling for help,
then finally getting a court order to
have me picked up by the authorities
and driving to the rehab hospital after
I took a hand full of pills soon after
returning from a night club in the
wee hours of the morning.
I was late once again coming home
to my little family, 2 little ones and
my then husband of 8 yrs from a nite
out to listen to music and be around
others that drank like I did.
It was just that very Feb 1990 when
I was on my way home from that very
club at 2 am when I must have blacked
out at the wheel and ran off the road
less than a mile from my home, hitting
a concrete culvert sitting on top the
ground.
I don't recall the accident. I don't recall
my one and only ride in the EMS to the
hospital where I spent 10 day with a punctured
lung, punctured spleen which had to be
removed so I wouldn't bleed to death
along with numerous broken ribs, contusions,
chin sewn back on.....just a complete mess.
The entire time I was healing I didn't
drink any alcohol but only took the meds
prescribed. Come August, no need for
meds, healed very well, got the itch to
head out to the club and ....well.....
Here I am in Aug. 1990 spending my first
night in a rehab facility being monitored
in the phyciatric ward.
Yes, I was scared yet, as I walked around
the facility seeing folks shuffling across
the floor or mumbling, or hugging the
wall, I felt sure I wasn't that far gone.
The next night I was evaluated and passed
everything with the end result as having a
drinking problem or in other words, an
alcohol addiction.
From that moment on I made the choice
to remain in rehab for 28 days learning
all I needed to learn before I was to be
released so I wouldn't be sent to a halfway
house further away from my little family.
I took that knowledge taught to me
and held on tight as I put one foot
in front of the other, taking one step
at a time, using the AA program of
recovery as my own guideline to
remain sober building a strong solid
foundation to live my life upon for
yrs to come.
That was some 26 yrs ago and continue
today on my recovery journey passing
on much of that knowledge that was taught
to me over the yrs. enjoying the gifts of the
Promises as written for us in the Big Book
of AA.
For you, you are sleeping in your own
bed with yesterday behind you,
today almost over and tomorrow....
it isn't here yet, however, it will be
a new day. A new beginning.
Don't throw tonight away. Sleep
peacefully and with thankfulness
that you are not on the road drunk,
but safe and sound in your own bed.
The same way many of us are tonight too.
