WALK IN DRY PLACES #essentialsofrecovery

FINDING NEW VALUES

Restoration

Recovering alcoholics sometimes waste time and energy brooding over lost opportunities, and we do have a record of many lost opportunities! Bill W., the cofounder of Alcoholics Anonymous, once made it big on Wall Street before crashing in the 1929 cataclysm. He later drank away two wonderful chances for a comeback. Most of us alcoholics can recall similar opportunities we lost by drinking. We can eliminate these regrets by practicing gratitude for the recovery we have made. Without rationalizing, we can remind ourselves that few opportunities would have benefited us if we had continued to drink.

We can take comfort, too, in the clear evidence that there’s a wonderful restoration going on in our lives. While not every recovering alcoholic gets back a lost job or rebuilds a business, many of us do find sufficient prosperity and productive work in our new lives. Some alcoholics even find satisfying second careers or businesses after getting sober. Best of all, most recovering people discover that sobriety gives them the ability to appreciate their opportunities without worshipping material success.

I will make the best of my opportunities today and see them as stepping stones toward a more abundant life. I will not regret the past, because it brought necessary lessons.

© 1996 by Hazelden Foundation

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