Alcoholism Support Group
Alcoholism is the continued consumption of alcoholic beverages, even when it is negatively affecting your health, work, relationships and life. If you think alcohol is causing you to lose control, it's time to seek help. Our group is a safe place to vent, check in, get back up if you fall, and reach sobriety.
Children do not know how their parents love them, and they never will till the grave closes over those parents, or till they have children of their own.
--Edmund Vance Cooks
As adults, we may feel we were cheated out of a "normal" childhood because of our parents' emotional, physical, or spiritual failings. We may think they should never be forgiven for their actions or inactions when we were young.
Yet imagine what our lives would be like today if we did not forgive. We would be bitter, stomping angrily through life with a clipboard in hand, ready to write down the name of the next person who crosses us. It's time to throw away the clipboard and the names on it - including the names of our parents.
The program teaches us to love those who come into our lives, even if we don't like them. It teaches us forgiveness through our Higher Power. We do not have to like our parents, but we can love them. By the same token, we need to realize our parents love us in their special way. They aren't perfect - and neither are we.
Help me remember my parents did the best they could with what they had. That's all anyone can really do.
--Edmund Vance Cooks
As adults, we may feel we were cheated out of a "normal" childhood because of our parents' emotional, physical, or spiritual failings. We may think they should never be forgiven for their actions or inactions when we were young.
Yet imagine what our lives would be like today if we did not forgive. We would be bitter, stomping angrily through life with a clipboard in hand, ready to write down the name of the next person who crosses us. It's time to throw away the clipboard and the names on it - including the names of our parents.
The program teaches us to love those who come into our lives, even if we don't like them. It teaches us forgiveness through our Higher Power. We do not have to like our parents, but we can love them. By the same token, we need to realize our parents love us in their special way. They aren't perfect - and neither are we.
Help me remember my parents did the best they could with what they had. That's all anyone can really do.
Worthy of reflection.
bump.
The alcoholism took my Mother away, not just in death, but in life and it was this awakening that made me realise I too was going to die if I didn't do something about it. I looked in the mirror one morning, and saw my Mother staring back at me, and I just cried and said 'Oh God, please help me'. That was the day I entered rehab. Damned if I know how I got there. I know I dialled the number, and I know I got my sorry ass down to the Naval base, and I'm grateful I did.
There was a lot of forgiveness to be done. Not just to my Mother, but myself. Lot's of guilt and blame tied up all in knots. I'd even convinced myself I would be dead by 42. I couldn't do anything about the way I was raised, but I can do something about the path I travel on today, and how it will shape me and more importantly, my daughters life. It can be a vicious cycle, but it can be broken. The buck stops with me. I am responsible.
Have to say, there was a lot of relief and peace once I'd untwisted those knots. There was a lot more work to do, but new to sobriety, I'd made significant progress. Sorry it's so long but it was a massive turning point in my life when I confronted my childhood.
I have a little prayer to God I use for forgiveness...
"I can never get over the wonder of your forgiveness to me. Help me to pass on that forgiveness to those who hurt me. You forgive graciously, not grudgingly. Help me to do the same."