ok sentimental old fool that I am, having moved on from snatches of song lyrics to full blooded poems I find this from Burns who surely was one of us in training. But only one verse eh? Permit me.
Once fondly lov'd and still remember'd dear, sweet early object of my youthful vows, accept this mark of friendship, warm, sincere, (friendship! 'tis all that cold duty now allows.)
mm? Could apply to the love affair I had with booze in my youth, in that I used to love it,then I feared it now I'm on nodding terms with it but cold duty (sobriety) demands no more to dally with it.
So long as I recognise that this is a love lost to me for ever supplanted by a new love (God and sobriety) I can live the rest of my life as a sober man. Provided I change and keep growing even by the millimetre, then the man that was will not return. For if the man that was returns, that man will drink. But the man that is will not.
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It's not having what you want, it's wanting what you got. BB
Your post reminds me of something an old-timer said at a meeting once... he was from Jersey.... I'll never forget his accent when he said this....
"I'm not giving up anything. I'm getting RID of something."
I saw him recently with a brand new girlfriend. As a beloved fellowship member, I wanted to hug him but I couldn't, lol. There was definitely boundary between us because of her, but...................
fellowship "eyes" speak volumes, right? It was Good.
We have so much more today, sooooooo much more. Thank you God, for the gift of sobriety. I accept the gift.
and I've just realised the sweetheart of my youth whose honeyed lips I first kissed some 41 years ago is now a mean, spiteful, straight razor totin' woman. I'm well out of it.
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It's not having what you want, it's wanting what you got. BB
