Tiffanie is a 35-year-old transgender addict and alcoholic. She is divorced with two young children ages 8 and 6. She used to want to kill herself and tried to commit suicide twice. She received her 3rd DWI in the last 5 years 24 months ago and has been working the steps of the program and been In These Rooms since her last arrest. She says she has remained drug and alcohol free during this period. As a result of working this program, she now feels she has much to live for. In her In These Rooms share, Tiffanie stated “…tomorrow isn’t promised. Sometimes we need to live like we’re dying. Dreams do come true but for how long? I need to share my story while I have time.”
Step 12 of the Big Book In These Rooms states “…having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other addicts and the world and to practice these principles in all our affairs…”
I was in church yesterday, Mother’s Day. I sat listening to the Pastor wax poetic about the virtues of mothers. He described mothers as everything from the salt of the earth to being the best and most noble followers of Christ. He said he knew the world would go to hell without mothers. Breaking News: there wouldn’t be a world to go to hell in the first damn place without out mothers. Hello. But I digress. As I listened to this message, the Comedian Bernie Mac came to mind. Bernie Mac’s mother was a survivor of domestic abuse. When he was 8 years old, he came home one day and found her beaten, bloody and crying on their living room sofa. Mac sat down and tried to console her. As he sat there wiping away her tears and wiping off the blood, Mac said the comedian Red Skelton came on the television. As his mother sat there bloody and crying but watching Red Skelton, she began laughing. Mac said he knew in that moment what he wanted to be and do with his life. “…Anything that has that power to affect and change somebody, I wanted that power. I wanted to be and do that…” Mac went on to become one of the greatest comedians of his generation. It occurs to me it wasn’t necessarily his mother’s virtues that provided Mac with the inspiration to be and become a comedic genius. It was the power he found in her pain. That comedic genius Mac used to bring laughter and joy to millions and make him one the most successful and richest comedians of his generation was his sharing with the world the power he found in his mother’s pain. How we take for granted the power in our pain when it comes to Sharing WHY.
“…I was outwardly rich and alive with the material things of this world. I was inwardly poor and as dead as a doorknob…“
Sean Anderson
“…I was sure I would take to my grave being the survivor of molestation. This was shame and embarrassment greater than anything I had ever experienced…”
Yalie
“…I lived for years with seeing myself thru lens of how the world and others saw me. I thought I would always be and become how others saw me and what others said about me…”
X
Promise 9 of the Big Book In These Rooms states “…no matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others”. I describe Promise 9 as a Cosmic Return on Investment. I call understanding the value of the power found in our pain a Cosmic Return on Investment in our shit.
As my sponsor Dr. JJ is known to say, More to Come…
Read more about Hunter and tell your story. Listen to Hunter’s Podcast. All on wreckedamerica.com. In Wrecked America, #SharingWHYMatters
