ADVICE Worth Repeating - Letting Go and Holding Tight

I still read the advice columns.

So, today I got some advice worth repeating; I wish I had received earlier. Maybe you can relate to its commonsense.

You can’t keep others from creating a scene but you can chose not to act in it ~ Carolyn Hax

I grew up in a home where creating scenes was a big deal — probably because one member always created a scene when drinking. It took me way too long to learn that they were sick, and we who were trying to . . . control their drinking . . . were sick too.

I remember the night I heard, “A changed attitude on your part, may bring about recovery.”

Wait.

I could play a different part in my family’s interactions?

Yep.

But, before I developed a whole new part, I had to learn that the person I loved was not weak-willed, but sick; desperately ill, emotionally, spiritually and physically. And I was becoming a mean, manipulative, judgmental jerk, who sometimes played a victim.

Of course I was totally unaware I was also mastering my own unique take on an alcoholic “start” of my own life story. But that’s a story for another time.

Right now, I simply want to offer a little hope, some good news, and a life line out of the abyss that untreated alcoholism creates.

Here’s a way to start; read The Merry-Go-Round of Denial

I coulda, shoulda, woulda done more sooner . . . but, we get the help we need when we are willing to listen. Maybe you can learn from my mistakes.

Maybe tonight you will be willing to become willing?

I swear: for too long, I did not know I had a choice in some of the crazy family dynamics. I do not have to ever play the victim, the judge, or the enforcer ever again — I can just be me; making progress.