I was estranged from my family during the last years of my using days. \u00a0I saw them once or twice a year but seldom more. \u00a0And they weren’t all that sorry about my absence. \u00a0I was easily triggered to be angry at them about every opinion they held. \u00a0My presence created tension, constant tension, and no amount of alcohol eased it. \u00a0On the contrary, any amount escalated my urgency to argue. \u00a0But that all changed. \u00a0Not over night, but it changed. \u00a0For the first few years of my recovery, I can recall still wanting them to share my opinions but I learned to bite my lip. \u00a0I learned to pause and turn away. \u00a0Not stomp away. \u00a0The absence of alcohol perhaps made that possible.<\/p>\n
So much has changed since becoming clean and sober. \u00a0I’m sure you can count many ways your life has changed too. \u00a0I didn’t know I’d become a writer. \u00a0I had no idea that I’d travel throughout the country doing workshops. \u00a0And most of all I didn’t know I’d become friends, real friends, with my family. \u00a0And as I write this I am waiting for my sister, her son and grandson to arrive for a 5 day visit. \u00a0I am thrilled. \u00a0We still don’t share every opinion but I have learned to honor theirs and truly believe they have a right to any opinion they hold. \u00a0Have I come a long way!<\/p>\n
The growth we receive from the others we meet along the way, whether those others are in the rooms of recovery or simply colleagues at work, or complete strangers, is intended and a gift that has been waiting “in the wings” for our readiness. \u00a0I love that awareness. \u00a0Every thing I need to know and need to experience is waiting in the wings until the time is right. \u00a0That means I will never miss out on any thing that’s right for me. \u00a0I can turn down the experience, however. \u00a0Free will allows you and me to do that. \u00a0But if it’s an experience we truly need, it will revisit us at a later time. \u00a0Never fear.<\/p>\n
Having the gift of family is like icing on the cake of my life. \u00a0I have friends, abundantly. \u00a0And I adore them. \u00a0I feel loved by them. \u00a0I have a loving spouse who is supportive in every respect to the life I have chosen. \u00a0But to have siblings and their offspring want to be with me is simply a gift I had never expected to receive. \u00a0And my parents and I become the friends we deserved to be before they passed on. \u00a0In fact, my mother spent many winter months with my husband and me in Florida before she died. \u00a0My memories of those times comfort me. \u00a0I truly could not have imagined having this kind of experience with her. \u00a0Thank God that was one of the experiences that was “waiting in the wings” until I was ready for it. Recovery is amazing. \u00a0Isn’t it?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was estranged from my family during the last years of my using days. \u00a0I saw them once or twice a year but seldom more. \u00a0And they weren’t all that sorry about my absence. \u00a0I was easily triggered to be angry at them about every opinion they held. \u00a0My presence created tension, constant tension, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflections-in-the-mirror-you-and-yourself","category-what-i-believe-you-and-your-higher-power"],"yoast_head":"\n