Free Beer Tomorrow
by
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FREE BEER TOMORROW
Recently, my husband and I were in a mountain burger joint with a bar right in the middle of the room. I looked over to see a sign that read,
“Free Beer Tomorrow”
Hmmm.
I kept reading the menu. We ordered our dinner, then I looked back to the sign. My mind could not wrap around it.
Wait...WHAT?
All of a sudden I started laughing uncontrollably. Not only did I get it, but it was there just for me.
It was pure recovery.
The promise that if I don’t drink that beer today, there will be free beer tomorrow—then when I get to tomorrow, I look at the sign again and know that if I don’t drink today, there will be free beer tomorrow.
This makes me giggle just thinking about it.
The sign might as well say,
“One Day At A Time.” __________
HUMILITY
At the end of my drinking I suffered humiliation. I had embarrassment for things I had done and who I had become. I was hopeless.
I found out that humility is not the same as humiliation.
Humility: Low estimate of one’s importance.
Humiliation: Feeling shame or injury to one’s dignity or self-respect.
Big difference.
I can have humility and not suffer humiliation.
Being humiliated, I am stuck in victim mode, jealousy, resentment, and fear. You don’t even exist for me in that state. It’s all about me.
My ego becomes the right size by being humble. I can look at others with respect and rejoice in their victories because mine are not threatened. I set aside my own ego and self-thought to make other’s needs important to me.
Today, humility is something I long for and consciously practice.
It serves me well when I am serving.
__________SURRENDER
Unparalleled distress can set the stage for unparalleled deliverance.
The toughest things in life that we have to face can be where God does his richest work. If we trust him and turn it over to him just when we think we can’t bear it any more, we will be delivered to the other side of it.
The world is filled with paradox. I felt like surrender was “giving up” when, in fact, it was the first step in gaining power back.
The dictionary definition of Paradox is, “Apparently self-contradictory statement whose underlying meaning is revealed only by careful scrutiny. In poetry, paradox functions as a device encompassing the tensions of error and truth simultaneously, When a paradox is compressed into two words, as in living death, it is called an oxymoron.”
I had become an oxymoron. I was alive, but spiritually dead—unable to respond. This is how alcohol was for me. I felt like it made it easier for me to be me. But the truth was that it took me farther away from the real me and from God.
God gave us the power to choose to listen to him or not. Surrendering to His will is not giving up power, but gaining power so that his light will shine in us and through us and light the path for others as well. ?
The paradox is that we become more powerful when we surrender. The power is there at our disposal at all times. All we have to do is surrender to gain power.
____________SAFETY NET
The drink: safety had arrived when the buzz kicked in. NOW I could be myself and not flinch.
Being sober, I have no back-up me. The only me I have is the sober me and I don’t always like her. She is not always on. It is hard to always be raw and just there.
No safety net.
Day by day it gets easier.
When I look out there in nature, I see there is no safety net out there either. All animals and plant life are at the effect of their surroundings. They have to trust that nature will not fail them. I see that God made nature for us to observe this phenomenon.
I have to trust that by being me and showing up, throwing my so-called safety net—the drink—aside and trusting God, that it will all be ok.
I will be ok.
I can, not only survive, but thrive. And, hopefully, help others to do the same.
_________IMPATIENCE
Impatience is the fruit of pride and ego.
Think about it.
Impatience focuses on self above all else. When I am impatient with someone else, I am placing my own importance above theirs.
The word impatience derives from the Latin meaning, “not able to bear or suffer.”
Yes. I will do anything to not suffer, including push other’s needs out of the way before meeting my own. When I think of it that way, I hold the mirror up to see just how selfish I can really be.
To turn this around, I just need to step out and help somebody else. I get out of my own head and decide to put their needs first. In doing that I find my patience level increases.
Imagine that.
By not thinking about myself, I am not suffering anymore. This is the function of service to others.
God is patient with us. He wants to help us not suffer.
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About the Book
THE SECRET TO MY SOBRIETY
The secret to my sobriety is that my sobriety is not a secret.
Addiction is shrouded in secrecy, lies and darkness.
Separation from God.
Sobriety is staying in the light of the truth.
My prayer is that this book provides hope and inspiration for you if you are seeking to break the bonds of addiction and become the person God meant you to be.
If this book can touch one heart, help save one soul, and lead someone back to the path where they will find God—then it has served its purpose.
You are important. Life is now.
Step into the sunlight. Ask God for help this moment.
I did and I am forever grateful for His Grace.
About the Author
“My name is Heidi. I am an alcoholic in recovery.”
That is how I introduce myself now. Although I don’t drink anymore, the disease of addiction needs to be addressed and treated daily with a commitment to telling the truth and staying connected to God and to others like myself. Writing these books began as a strong call from God to write them to help others. These are simple realizations coupled with my photography and meant for alcoholics and addicts to identify with and to relate to, thoughts to read and for them to consider and to know that they are not alone on this road to recovery.
These books are fifteen-minute reads—fifteen thoughts, fifteen photos. I realized in my own early recovery that this was the short information-receiving window I had! As a transformed woman with 4,378 days of sobriety (12 years), I know that I could not do this without God. Period. I would not bet on anyone staying sober without getting the concept of surrender to God.
I am forever grateful for God speaking through me with these simple reads. People have told me they have given these books to someone who was “thinking” about getting sober but could not do it before this. They have come back to me and told me about the miracles of these gentle messages being received by their loved ones and them deciding to get sober.
My husband, Dick, and I live on the coast of California in a sweet little town called Aptos. He is a retired dentist. I have had my own graphic design business, Heath Design, serving the Silicon Valley high-tech industry for over thirty-five years. I didn’t start writing until after I got sober in 2004, three days before my fiftieth birthday. I never felt compelled to write before that. My other great joy is being a watercolor dog portrait artist. I love to capture the love shared between the dog and their owner through portraiture.
I am totally committed to God and to my sobriety. My prayer is to give back through these books what was so freely given to me.