Parent Partners: Making an Impact

Living Life on Life's Terms? Yes

A sponsee asked me recently “how do we really live life on life’s terms, when it appears at best to be an extraordinarily difficult proposition?” “Yes indeed” I replied, “Difficult yes…but not impossible.”

I went on to say that in recovery I have learned that we must approach each moment of each day with the spirit of hope no matter what  Yes there is suffering in life, there is pain and there are defeats. No one can avoid them. And yes we will lose some of the battles as we struggle for our dreams.

But what we do not see and what most of us never suspect of existing, is the silent but irresistible power which comes to the rescue of those who fight on in the face of discouragement and loss.  For me that is recovery, and the very essence of “living life on life’s term.”

And how long should I continue to try to live life on life’s terms?

Until.

Change

I heard someone say once in a meeting that all change in our lives, even change that we desperately long for, comes with some bit of sadness.  A sadness that is most often borne in the realization, that what we must leave behind is a part of ourselves.  And yet there is also the truism that for everything we lose or miss in our lives, we gain something new and of unquestioned value.

Some times it may be a new level of peace and at other times a new understanding of ourselves or the world around us.  Because ultimately things really don’t change…we do.  The challenge though, for those of us in recovery from addiction, is to be ready at any moment to give up what we are or have been for what we may become.

Dwelling in Possibility

In my recovery from my addiction I no long “wish” for things for myself and others because I have come to feel that the act of wishing for them inherently may contain an underlying expectation which, if unfulfilled, may turn to resentment.

Instead today I find my hope in “possibility” which contains the passionate sense of potential.  Pleasure may and often does disappoints but possibility never does.

Audrey Hepburn said once, “Nothing is impossible…the word itself says         'I'm possible'!

Life and Difficulty

I often marvel at the many new truths my recovery from addiction has revealed and continues to reveal to me on a daily basis.  Early on in the rooms I heard that part of the good news of not using drugs and alcohol was that we “get to experience life the way it is supposed to be experienced.”  However, the admonition goes…”that is also the bad news!!!!”  

 What I understand today is that life indeed can be challenging and extremely difficult at times.  That is a truth, perhaps one of life’s greatest truths. But it is also a great truth that once we understand that life is difficult this knowledge empowers us to transcend it.  And once we accept and transcend it then life is no longer difficult. 

 Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult simply no longer really matters.