Yesterday I was asked to be on the board of directors of the South Florida Coalition for Drug Free Communities.
On the board of directors.
I am already a member of the Miami Beach Coalition for a Drug Free Community,
And PAPDA (Parents Against Prescription Drug Abuse).
Though I was not sure if I qualified as a parent.
My daughter Joy died 23 years ago.
I actually paused when it was asked at my church last Father’s Day, ’How many fathers are there here today?’
Am I? I thought.
A father?
I know I was, but when you lose a child are you still a parent?
I didn’t know, until I visited Joy’s grave again.
There,
At that moment,
I knew I was with my little girl.
And I would always be her daddy.
I am a father.
I go off on tangents a lot, which is probably why my stories are so long.
I started writing this because at my ‘Sober at 6’ home group, a friend of mine named Jimmy G spoke;
About Thomas Edison, the Wright brothers and the space shuttle
Thomas Edison had tried over 7,500 times to make a light source with a newly discovered thing called electricity.
A reporter asked him one day, “Why don’t you give up? You’ve failed over 7,500 times to make it work. It doesn’t.”
Edison replied, “That’s how little you know about science, and obviously even less about life. I didn’t fail 7,500 times;
I documented 7,500 ways it doesn’t work. That just brings me closer to finding the way it will.”
Jimmy G. spoke about Gen. Langley, who failed hugely,
And publicly,
Trying to make a machine that could fly.
But two brothers in NC didn’t hear about that, or didn’t listen;
They invented a machine that flew.
Think about that.
Think bout trying to explain something to someone who has no reference to relate to what you are saying.
It’d be like trying to explain the color red to a person who was born blind.
I told you that I was asked to be on the board of the South Florida Coalition for a Drug Free Community and the other groups I am a member of, because some of you reading this;
CEO’s, counselors, CAP’s, PhD’s, etc..
Will think being a member of these groups is not a big deal,
Rather a pre requisite.
But for me,
For us;
Alcoholic or addicts still ‘In the pink cloud’
Still in wonder of the 4th dimension of recovery,
Of our growing conscious contact with a ‘Higher Power’;
With God.
Or those who are still on the outside,
Looking through the glass at people in recovery.
Wanting in, but not believing it is possible.
It is a big deal.
Incomprehensible.
If you told me two years ago that I would be asked to be on the board of a drug free community coalition,
And the editor of a recovery magazine,
If you told me I would interview the Deputy Director of the White House’s National Drug Control Policy 2 months ago for issue 4,
And a Congressman today for issue 6,
I would not have comprehended what you were talking about.
Would not believe something like that was possible.
Could not even imagine it as a fantasy.
After 10 ½ years in prison,
Then 10 ½ years running a strip club in active addiction.
Overactive addiction;
Hospitalized 3 times for complications from alcohol;
Starting my ‘career’ with Tequila, ending it with light beer;
(Easier on the stomach, but takes more to get the job done),
Being Baker Acted & locked up for observation in a mental ward for 72 hours;
After being arrested for standing in the rain with a knife,
Screaming at a God I didn’t believe in.
Running around the ghettos of Miami in the middle of the night trying to score,
Staring at myself in the mirror with lips blistered from not letting the crack pipe cool off.
Blood trickling down my arm where I didn’t bother wiping it after shooting up,
And vomit sprinkling the toilet from my last meal:
A six pack or two (depending on how many I could hold down)
Losing my wife, job, and eventually my house,
Selling it to go into treatment.
To tell me where I would be today –
Is why I tell you where I am today:
So that the new comer (Yeah, that’s you bro, & me too.) reading this who cannot comprehend the idea, may believe a bit.
I can’t understand how you get 100’s of channels on a TV by pushing a button,
I just see that it works if you do it.
Dude, it is so possible,
If you just do it.
I have a quote on my magazine’s website,
And I also put it in every magazine;
Until one is committed there is always hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation there is one elementary Truth, the ignorance of which, kills countless ideas and splendid plans. That the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves, too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would otherwise not have occurred. A whole stream of events issue from the decision raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.
Johann Wolfgang Goethe
Jimmy G also talked about the Space Shuttle, and how it takes 90% of it’s fuel to get 10% on it’s way.
Until it breaks the chains of gravity.
Then it takes just little spurts of fuel to rocket it along to the farthest reaches of space,
Because there is nothing holding it back.
Do the steps;
Thoroughly and honestly.
And you will break the chains of addiction and be rocketed into a whole new dimension;
Of belief:
In life.
In the future.
In yourself.
There will be nothing to hold you back.
Believe it.
peace
