New & Different Choices

A friend who was a drug and alcohol abuser has now been in recovery over eight years. For thirty years he was a street bum living in boxes on hot air gratings, begging or stealing food, in and out of jail, working odd jobs to feed his habits. I asked what caused him to change so dramatically. He answered quickly: "When I was sixteen, I was already on drugs. My mother said that when I got tired of living that way, there were other choices. I lived in the streets for years. Every time I saw her, she reminded me that I had other choices. One morning I woke up in jail with a broken arm and a horrible headache. I thought about what she told me and decided I didn''t want to live that way any more. That morning I changed my life."rn He has acted on his new choice. Today he has a job that requires a certified driving license and a random drug test at least every six months. He said the other drivers hate the test, but he loves it. When the test is over and he gets the results, he jumps and shouts: "I did it! Clean and sober again!" He’s discovering life''s joys like a child, having experiences that most of us had as teenagers even though he’s over fifty. Things I take for granted are new and exciting for him.rnrn From book “Taming The Dragons of Change” – see www.dragonsofchange.com rn