A new year

And a very happy night it is...a new year is just hours away. And I am
alive and very well. Being alive has taken on a whole new meaning this
past year. This past year almost wasn't...it almost never happened for
me. This time last year...as 2007 was coming to a close, I was
watching the ball drop in Times Square from a hospital bed. Looking up
at a television screen wishing that I was at home in San
Francisco...with all of my friends. Ringing in the new year just like
I had so many times before. With a steady stream of booze-lovin...
My life as I knew it had come to a grinding halt in mid december...my
body said no more. So the first choice of my new year was to go to
treatment..a choice that would save and change my life in one fail
swoop...
I entered treatment and started to learn more about the disease that I
had. Alcoholism...and the power that it held over me. 28 days later I
popped out of rehab cured of my afflicition...or so I thought. I was
ready to go back home....and change my life without really changing
anything at all. And in the business that I am in it doesn't really
work like that.
Two weeks later...my disease reminded me of how much power I really
had over it.
This time...I removed my face from the dirt and set out to do it
different this time. I changed it all...I moved out of the City of my
heart...and I started on a new path. A path of recovery...that would
open my eyes to a whole new world around me. A world that I didn't
think would ever be possible for me...a life without alcohol.
This year has been the hardest...and the greatest year I have ever
had. There has been alot of crying, laughing, wondering, hoping,
praying,listening...and most of all learning this year.
One treatment center..one sober living house...one shitty jobs to
start it...one amazing job to finish it...two cities...lots of socks,
Paticence, and toothpaste...one fucking amazing home group...twelve
amazing steps...one life changing program...and a higher power.
For the first time in my life I'm going into a new year with
hope...and optimism. I have both eyes open. Putting one foot in front
of the other. 2009 is going to be a good year.