I have been invited to share my experience, strength and hope with the
Western Washington Area 72 Alcoholics Anonymous (aka Area 72) Accessibility
Committee summer quarterly meeting this Saturday morning. It is an honor and a privilege to talk about
using and sobriety from the perspective of a wheelchair using paraplegic.
I want to do a good job sharing an entertaining informative message of
hope 20 minute. Unfortunately, my presentation experience is limited. The
standard plan is to talk about what it was like, what happened and what it is
like now.
In AA’s second step, we came to
believe that a power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity. The converse of step 2 is that we had sanity
until nature and nurture colluded to make us alcoholics at some point our lives—often
before we ever even started drinking or using.
In my case, I lost my sanity the first time I ever lit a match and
burned down my father’s hay barn full of hay.
Family lore labeled me as a pyromaniac from an early age. After a few years in Alanon recovery I
realized that giving matches to an unsupervised 5-year old kid in a hay barn
does not make a pyro. Instead that was
seriously irresponsible parenting at the time and into the present in which
this gaff has remained forever unacknowledged.
The part that made me insane was waiting for and getting a beating by a
large man with an old growth fir club until it broke and then having the
beating continue with yet another club.
I was lucky to have not been permanently disabled or killed by that
beating.
…taking a break for the night.
Hope to finish in the next 12 hours.
I am grateful for MS Windows, Word, my PC skills and a nice PC
monitor. Tonight we had steak &
lobster for dinner at home. It was
delicious. Thank you god for great food
and plenty of it!
People who beat young children at 5 years of age are abusers plain and simple, my brother and my sister and I were abused by people who told people we were their kin, kin my ass..I cried out to my pe teacher in high school she saw the bruises when I was getting dressed from a session of pe and said enough already, she knew the family and called the cops we were removed and they taunted us as we packed our clothing and few possessions, my own father wanted to beat the hell out of them but he would have been arrested and having lost our Mother that would be tooo much he took to drink..I always thought who beats the hell out of kids a lot, makes them work like slaves and tells them their parents are shit..there is a special place in hell for people who do that..It is any wonder I don't drink and take drugs, but I don't I prefer to be kind and loving and sentimental towards young children and I fuss over babies like you could not believe, but my brother took to drugs and alcohol and my baby sister does still...I think the past can shape the future but not if one is vigilant as I am daily, my hubs doesn't drink and we have a wonderful marriage, I had a horrible childhood but when I was a young adult I was damned if I was to live the life I had to live because my Mom died of cancer at a young age and it devastated my Father who took to drink and got sober years after her death and we were taken away from him forever, the past doesn't define the future, I read you blog and admire your tenancity, courage and guts, geez many in our world just would fold up and keep abusing this and that, soldier on and congrats upon speaking and helping others to keep sober and happy..ciao
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