Let's celebrate life

Could we celebrate life and those who love it for a change?

I don't mean to be unkind or unfeeling, but seriously?  Whitney Houston is dead.  She is yet another in a long line of celebrity/performers who can't seem to get a handle on their addictions.  And that is sad.  But it is sad in a way that is different than mourning someone who gets hit by a train or dies of cancer.

Yes, addiction is a disease.  But it has a component to it that involves free will and choice.  And as sad as all this is, there is a part of me that just wants to remind people of that.  She was a smart woman and she knew that any time she picked up a pill bottle, it could be the last time.

I would like to take this opportunity to say how much harder it is for those that I know and love who work through their addiction on a day-to-day basis and have been doing so for 30 days, for 4 years, for 20 years, for 36 years. To make the hard choice, the not-near-as-much-fun choice each and every day, THAT is what we should celebrate.

I don't want to say too much and break the anonymity of people I love, but this is what happens when you get cavalier with your sobriety, when you think you can handle life alone, without your support system and without giving all the power over to God.  You take some of that power back for yourself and you can have disastrous results.  We as mere mortal humans have to know our place in the scheme of things.

So if you are one of the many, many out there struggling on a daily or hourly basis with addiction, please know that I celebrate you.  I celebrate you every time you think of picking up the bottle/pills/needle/whatever and choose to call your sponsor, or ask for help, or pray, or go to a meeting instead.  It may not get easier but it will get to be more of a first response.

I am not at all sure that I have the kind of strength and resolve it takes to beat an addiction and keep working on sobriety, so I stand humbly in awe of those of you who do.

You inspire me.

You inspire me to be better.  To keep working on myself to be the best I can.  To keep working to be healthier, spiritually, mentally and physically.

And to the others who might be reading that are still struggling and wanting to make better, healthier choices for themselves before the next wrong decision could be the last decision, please know that it is never weak to ask for help and support.  It is the strongest thing you can do, to lift yourself up and say "I am worthy".  Please keep striving and asking and praying.  Minute by minute, if necessary.  You are worth it.