Books
Accepting Hardship As A Pathway To Peace
As I walked across the cream-colored pulpit trimmed in mahogany and accepted the burgundy folder with the diploma that would change my life forever, I wept. It was a certificate of completion that would ultimately signify a regenerated person, a butterfly that had just emerged from the cocoon of an alcohol and crack-innduced coma. A five-cent piece of paper that was one of the biggest achievements in my life to date. I was a 42-year-old man that really didn’t know what it was to be a man. I had all of the physical attributes of a person that had been on this planet over four decades–a mustache, a receding hairline, teeth in need of repair. I had no bank account, no driver’s license, no stellar resume to present to prospective employers. There was no mortgage to pay, no deadlines to meet, no budget or quota to hit.
I read the words over and over. Richard S. Preston has sucessfully completed all the requirements appertaining to the LEVELS Recovery program and is hereby awarded the rights and privileges of an alumnus. Me. There was more!…
The Unseen Struggles with Addiction
Ever since Amber’s child was taken from her by child protection services, her heroin usage was at an all time high, an addiction that has been hard to shake since the day she rummaged through her mother’s medicine cabinet in search of something to relieve her headache.
The dark dirty rooming house where she was living with three other adults was about to be torn down. The house was adjacent to an old, vacant BBQ restaraunt that decades ago served the best ribs in town, and whenever the wind blew in a northerly direction, would fill the room with the smell of burnt wood and stale meat, a reminder of days long past. In the corner of iniquity sat two white dingy plastic chairs with cigarette burns on the armrests…