You choose

by Peter Twitchell

Our people have been suffering tremendously for a long time from alcohol abuse. If it’s not from the guilt caused by our terrible mistakes when we’re drunk, it’s the addition to it.

Alcohol abuse can become a way of living, for some of us. We become so guilt-ridden we take the easy way out and self-medicate. Only to forget our self pity for a while.

Meantime, we’ve committed another crime worst than the last one we did. It’s a never ending and vicious cycle. We set ourselves up to let ourselves down and those who love us.

We all, each of us have boundaries we should never cross, but alcohol does not respect that precious rule we’ve all been taught.

Alcohol has no boundaries. Alcohol will destroy us, if we let it. We can’t blame alcohol. We put alcohol up on a pedestal, like it’s the queen of our lives and it lets us down every time.

Welcome to the choice of living in horror or true happiness. You choose. We have, you and me, the choice to live in hell here on earth or in paradise.

We may not have any money because we chose to throw it all away on a drunken blast. But I’ll tell you, watching a beautiful sunrise in the morning and a smile on your daughter’s face is worth every moment we are sober and safe.

When I sing that beloved country-n-western song, “Take these chains from my heart and set me free,” I’m not thinking, like the song is intended, for a woman to set me free.

Once upon a time, forty-nine (49) years ago I chained my heart from seeing reality. When you’re even in your lowest hour, true happiness will come to you. If you’ve ever said the Lord’s Prayer, then you’ll understand why, because we can be free from our guilt and shame.

This world is still a beautiful place because each one of us was created with the beauty of God’s pure loving light.