Walking the Walk

"The world is changed by your example, not your opinion." ~ Paul Coelho

The 12-Step Serenity Prayer, "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference," might seem like a call to action while demanding the exact opposite. Even those who have not entered into any 12-Step programs available to the addicted and those otherwise impacted by the disease can get the essence of the message:

Let go, and let God, god (Him/him or Her/her), the Universe, Great Creator or any other higher power  - something explainable only by some sort of faith in something OUTSIDE OF OURSELVES - take over. But how do we do that for ourselves while making our surrender visible to our children?

We walk the walk of those who have learned not to beat their heads against the wall created by The Addiction.

Those of us who have children spiraling through the vortex of addiction, or whose children are in recovery, re-learning the lessons of life missed while spiraling, come to know, eventually, hopefully, that reacting, fixing and confronting do nothing to "save" our children. It also does nothing to "save" ourselves.

We have a long walk or drive - if I may - to our recovery as we show our children a path to theirs through our example of living a life as completely and joyfully as possible. The "hard part" is keeping our hands off the steering wheel while our children navigate the driver's ed of their stumbles through addiction or recovery from the spirals. And we can show them, as we keep them close by in our passenger seats, by how we drive our lives, that road raging through life does nothing to improve anything.

They will see. They will learn. They will stop engaging in the battles with The Addiction and start engaging with LIFE. They will pull themselves out of the muck, the vortex - their "hard part" - and begin that long journey to the light.

We will then begin a journey together, perhaps to different destinations that may be equally the same yet totally independent, to a place where lives are well lived.

Stay the course. Keep your hands off their steering wheels. Walk the walk and we can live the lives we were destined to achieve!

. . . keep coming back

"Find your joy and let it run your life." ~ Cleo Wade