Today's Thought, a must read for newcomers to recovery!

Checking my emails this morning I came across Today's Gift from Hazeldon. It is something that I want to share with the rest of you, especially the new comers to recovery.
When you are ready to stop using, it is hard. It's hard to know what to do and where to go. How to obtain and hard to hold. Recovery is possible. It is not easy, nothing worth having rarely is. But there is hope for all of us. Sometimes it takes more than a little encouragement from someone on a forum and sometimes it is all we need.
Let me share this with you.



How often do we hear people say, "Sure, I know it's the right thing to do - but it's easier said than done!'' But "it," whatever "it" is for each of us, is actually easier done than not done. As hard as it is to turn our will and our behavior toward recovery, failing to recover is much harder. Ultimately, any price we pay for recovery is far less than the cost of giving up everything we've gained.

Some of us have a very difficult time making phone calls. Others are scared to death of speaking at meetings, talking to strangers, or admitting that we have feelings. But the alternative has simply been too painful. Whatever we have to do is worth it. The payoff is immense. How many of us, when we did attend that meeting that frightened us, felt an enormous surge of self-confidence and happiness? How often, when we have stood our ground and found it did not kill us, have we felt that we could lick the world? The payoff is that we learn to like ourselves more, and that is as good as it gets.

I will make sure today that I am not forgetting the benefits of recovery and only considering the price of recovery.

Today's Thought is a reading from the book:
Days of Healing, Days of Joy by Earnie Larsen and Carol Larsen Hegarty

For those of you who do not attend meetings or groups this post is not meant to offend. Take what you can use and leave the rest.