Friday, Nov. 11, 2022
Today’s Gift from Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation is:
Finding My Way Back to Me
Combat and drug addiction erased the notion that I had any goodness left within me. I was irredeemable. I had not just burned bridges. I had roasted marshmallows over their flames. Because I felt like I was nothing but poison to the good people in my world.
I became a victim in my own story. So I put chemicals in my body to soften the edges. I continued until the edges were completely blunted and dull. I was a shadow of the person I used to be. I saw my brothers who I lost in combat as collateral damage to my self-destruction. And I was carrying their memories as excuses to keep poisoning my body.
So I made a decision to not use the memories of these people as a reason to keep killing myself. These were heroes. I became the best version of myself, because that’s the only way I feel worthy of carrying their memory. Today they come with me everywhere, and I feel them working through me. That’s the way it’s supposed to be.
Today I will honor the people I loved and lost by being the person they always knew me to be.
— Bradley L., U.S. Army, 2005–2010
Hazelden Foundation
No comments:
Post a Comment