Paraphrasing a meditation from Gratitude a Verb:
“A friend is one who believes in you when you cease to believe in yourself.”
When I came forward for recovery, I had few friends like those. I did not know that those I would make in recovery would become such friends nor the serious challenges I would face even after leaving drinking behind me. With time I learned these new friends could help me through those challenges as no one else could.
While I have again bonded with family and old friends, none help me in the same way or as effectively as those who experienced both powerlessness and its solution. Friends outside my program tried in earnest to help, but they tended to console. They did not see me using, so they could not see what those I met through recovery did, namely when my addiction was nevertheless reaching back for control.
We get by with a little help from our friends.
(Happy sober Saturday, y’all. 
)