said the 20 years sober speaker
sober via Alcoholics Anonymous
like millions of others and
. . . ”a spiritual experience is anything that happens
in your life both good and bad
that renders you never the same again
coming out the other side
changes you forever”. . .
as he mentions his first encounter with alcohol
as being a “love at first sight” kind of episode
with no going back and illustrates the inability
to leave it alone or learn from falling and failing at
every attempt to do NORMAL life
drink in hand
and I reminisce about the many things which
left me forever altered
like Domestic Violence in my home
from the moment I was born
and Rape(s) at a later date
and the repetition of violence and abuse
with alcohol involved of course
but even more startling were the occasions of mayhem when
alcohol was gone
but this is not to say there were not glorious occurrences of
Beauty and Light of the typically SPIRITUAL type
it is just that I have never heard Spiritual Experience
expressed in this way
and it opened my eyes
further expanded my mind
to include the rather sordid and painful life-changing episodes
as being no less
divine
and I am grateful this night for the full hour
to hear his story in its entirety
though I’ve known him for all of his sober years
there is still so much we can never know about
another human being
unless we take the time
to listen
to the struggle
the near-death calamity
and the overcoming of the difficulty
find the gift in it
and pass it on . . .
Domestic Violet
Semper Vi ~
Survivor . . . from the VORTEX
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