Ah !!! Thank you 
I mis-read 
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Hahahaha! Yes so true - spot on 
In my little over 2 years of being sober the one main thing I have learned is that nothing in life is going to be handed to me if it’s worth having. As an addict it was quite easy to expect people to do as I wanted and to give me what I wanted. Addiction breeds a sense of self-entitlement that is often reinforced by people who enabled me. I was always told “oh it will be okay” and “chin up, you’ll get em next time”. What I was never told was that for things to be okay, I had to be the one to take the action to make it okay. Once the enablers ran out, and people dropped off, I was left with the stone cold realization that it was on me to do things required to get better. And once I got dried out, and sobered up, in rehab, that’s when I realized that just because I was finally sober, that it was going to require even more work to stay that way. I had a rehab counselor tell me just that as I was leaving the same rehab for the second time in 6 months. Basically he said I fucked up the first time, and if I don’t make changes, I’ll fuck up again. That shit right there, is what I still hold on to. Nowadays my life is so much better than I ever thought possible. I stopped bitching and expecting things and started acting and achieving things. The path to sobriety is a tough one to walk because it’s so simple and clear that you wouldn’t think it to be true. That’s what probably tripped me up the most; just how simple it is. I wanted the path to be much more difficult to follow so I could have an excuse not to follow it. Rather than work, I would bitch and as a result rather than get sober, I would use. Once I decided to drop my ego of thinking I was smarter than everyone, I just followed the path of those who came before me. If you can work hard, sobriety can be had by anyone. If you make excuses, then it won’t be had at all.
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I was thinking of LOTR today. Smeagol was consumed by the one ring. You could say that he was suffering from a terrible addiction. Frodo brought him out. Put him in a rehab program, so to speak. He improved a lot. It was a very co-dependant relationship though. As soon as Smeagol felt like Frodo wronged him (even if it was a problem with his perception), he went right back out to his addictive behavior, lying and cheating, etc.
I feel like we are very like Smeagol. We’re also very like Frodo though. Why do we take offenses to everything? Are you letting it affect your recovery? It could destroy you.
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I also looked a lot like Smeagol when I was using crack and heroin.
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- farts quietly *
Briskly walks away
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This reads a little weird… I feel that you maybe meant the difference between when a lawyer’s been hit by a car, or a skunk’s been hit by a car… And not the difference between a car and a skunk hitting a lawyer, which admittedly does have great comedic value.
So, I say the difference is there are skid marks before the skunk.
(throws skunk at lawyer)
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He doesn’t sleep.
He waits
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With Ivanka?
I have no idea.
I’m far removed from US politics so many things slip by completely unnoticed
Haha.
Love it… And applicable to so many
Damn…
Always an interesting contrast that the festive season is anything but festive for many
I will get back to this answer when I get to work
I work in the recovery field as well and I NEED my alone time on Saturday, like ALL OF SATURDAY to regenerate my compassion/ community-mindedness. If I have to do one solitary thing for another person on Saturday I swear I start Monday off feeling like butt.
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I still get to use some of my skills learned as an attorney, but for me switching that work identity went hand in hand with getting sober. I needed a fresh slate in a new field. I’m not ruling out law forever, but right now I’m at a great agency. I’m currently training to make the jump in to management, which will be a nice change of pace.
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I just lost one of my clients to end stage liver failure and hepatorenal syndrome. Due to her drinking her liver shut down, causing a back up of toxins in her kidneys. This caused uncontrollable internal hemorrhaging of her lower GI tract. One by one her organs began to shut down. She was never put on a transplant list due to her alcoholism. 4 days ago, after much discussion, her family finally put her on comfort Care after 50 days in the hospital. I’d like to tell you that she died peacefully but she did not. She suffered immensely over the last few weeks, undergoing numerous surgeries and blood transfusions. Eventually her cognitive ability declined to the point where she could only cry out in pain and agony. In the end her family had to make the decision to let their daughter, mother, friend and aunt die. Her 13 year old son was present, as well as the rest of her family, at the end.
My client was 37 years old.
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How awful. Thoughts and prayers to her, her family and friends 
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My thoughts go out to everyone close to this lady. This just goes to show how hard your job really is, for every person who you can help there are sadly the people who don’t make it.
A stark reminder to us all just how serious this stuff is. 
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Addiction is a progressive disease. I know that if I had not stopped when I did, that could have been what I was heading towards, if I even made it to 37. When I have a hard time feeling excited about being sober, I try feeling thankful that I am alive and in fair health, and have the chance to stay that way.
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I’d also like to share what I was told once. “When you pick up, you pick up right where you left off.” I know this has been true for me. My first drink of a relapse wasn’t necessarily the first of a binge right that night, but it certainly descended quickly from there to whatever level of drinking I’d worked my way up to the last time around.
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