One of my favorite quotes is from Lao Tzu that reads: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step”
Whether you live a life in recovery or if you are fighting an addiction, those thousand miles can be rough and bumpy.
Before I entered recovery, those bumps in the road would completely derail me. I would be meandering along the highway of life when something as small as a stick in the road would cause me to panic, swerve, roll my car, and smash into a tree. It didn’t take a pothole or a deer running into the road, one tiny little twig would be enough for me to crash and burn.
Today, after doing the work that is required in recovery, I can assess the situation more clearly and then decide how I should handle whatever is threatening to send me spiraling.
The 12 steps of AA and NA have armed me with the “tools” (as they are referred to), which help me to understand, acknowledge, and, whether I like it or not, accept what is in front of me. The first tool I grab from my pink toolbelt, is to phone a friend or my sponsor to help me assess the situation. You see, when I am looking at a situation that has occurred, I know that I will catastrophize it. That little twig in the road has become a 25-foot limb completely blocking my path, causing me to stay trapped in my car for days before someone finds me shriveled up from lack of food and water.
When I share my fear with a friend, she often has a much different outlook on the situation and I would be reminded that first, the obstacle in the road is not 25-feet, but more like 25 inches so there is no need to panic, just drive over or around it. Secondly, even if the twig was, in fact, a ginormous branch blocking the road, all I would have to do is turn around and start my journey over using another route. Oh, and I could always call someone to come help if I was trapped so I wouldn’t have to starve to death.
The tools help to put the events in my life in perspective, and most importantly, to truly understand that, regardless of what is happening in front of me, I have the strength within me and around me to be strong and remain focused on the solution.
Being clean and sober doesn’t mean that life will be easy, as a matter of fact, it can be brutal at times. We are often faced with horrendous circumstances, difficult choices, and painful realities. Just because we have chosen to live a life where we abstain from substances, does not mean we are given a pass to avoid life’s struggles.
However, what we do develop in recovery, is a deep and intimate relationship with a Higher Power and have come to trust and believe in that force which guides and protects us. I learned many years ago that life on life’s terms is much easier to navigate if I have God (my personal Higher Power) to talk to and lean into when life gets rough and bumpy. I also learned that I must take that first step if I want to enjoy the next thousand miles, which I absolutely do, regardless of the terrain.
So, for those of you who are considering a life of recovery or are already living it, buckle up, enjoy the ride and don’t let those little road twigs scare you.