October 16
Autonomic
Alcoholics in isolation go no place good. Isolation is too expensive to keep; whether it is a bad habit or worse. How do I hold to a receding thing such as this? I am amazed that I accomplish this difficult task and fear my ability to do something simple like breathe. I wonder often why destruction is so seductive when life is fine. Yet, I hear the cloying whispers of lonely isle shores, I must bind myself to friendship and hold firm to companions for the water is no place for me, I have forgone my once liquid life.
Tell yourself a story about what you’ve learned
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ARCHIMEDES PUT A BOULDER IN MY PATH
Place a lever under the boulder and press down.
Never so hard as to warp the lever.
Move the pivot and push under a new place.
Keep doing this until you have pushed deeply
And well from every aspect of the boulder in you path.
This works every time.
Not because it dislodges the boulder
But because it somehow changes me.
The path may also appear different.
Often the boulder drops from view.
It may not be gone but seems less irretraceable.
My life goes on.
I have found it important to retain my lever and pivot.
There is never just one boulder.
You are reading selections from More Sober on the Way to Sane and Lines From My Life by Sherrie Theriault
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