Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice.

Proverbs‬ ‭1‬:‭20

At a certain point it should be obvious to all concerned that there’s an issue. Acknowledging what the root of the issue actually is may produce some heated discussion, though.

Addiction turns us into unruly, deviant versions of ourselves that will stop at nothing to shirk responsibility.

And this may not be apparent in other areas of our lives, but when our drinking and using is concerned, we are astonishingly capable of absolving ourselves of wrongdoing.

We become curiously blind to the effects of our addiction on others and curiously resistant to altering course.

We would do well to begin listening to the cries around us. Those sane pleas to come to our senses. They may persist into our actual sobriety, too.

Getting to the end of our drinking requires a great deal of letting go. We can’t trust ourselves. We begin to see this, but it hurts to allow the truth to take hold of our everyday choices.

We are better for it when we do, though.

The simple fact is that our best thinking landed us deep in the trenches of addiction with little comprehension of how desperate we were.

Only as the shroud begins to lessen over the course of a bit of sober time do we begin to see the horror of where we were headed.

And we realize we resemble a madman.

God, please take the wheel.