"After five years of sobriety you get your brains back, after ten you learn how to use them, and after fifteen years you realize you never needed them anyway."
What a cord of recognition this struck when I first heard it at ten years sober. I remember the first five years and how I seemed to be in a haze in the beginning. I spent these years learning how to make sense of and deal with my feelings, my life, relationships, and so on. Everything was so new to me. My focus was on recovery and learning how to live life on lifes terms.
Once I passed this phase, I did feel as if I had my brains back, and I began thinking and planning. What career did I want? How about a future with a family? How could I use my new clarity and focus to twist life to suit my needs and wants? If other people had things, why couldnt I get them, too? And off I went, trying to arrange life to meet my new expectations.
At fifteen years, things shifted for me again. Today, when I get centered and connected to my Higher Power, I see clearly and simply, and I know that my only real purpose is to do Gods work and be of service. It doesnt take a lot of brains to do that. Instead it takes a continuing willingness to listen to my heart and to follow what I know is right. When Im into action and not into thinking, things generally turn out for the best for all concerned.
