So, how’s your week going?
Here’s a report on mine:
- I entered a website that greets me with the words “You’ve just been hacked,”
- I wake up in the next morning with that strange familiar tickle in the back of my throat,
- I get up, turn on my computer, and get nothing,
- I’m late getting out the door for an important appointment, go to start my car and, nothing……
And it’s only Tuesday.
So there are days like this that extend into weeks, maybe months, sometimes years.
- Where the cruel fist of fate has pummeled you from here to eternity
- Where the gods of fortune have anchored your boat to the bottom
- Where the universe itself seems lined up against you
Several years ago I ran into Charles P. at a Northside meeting in Chicago.
Charles had been wrongfully incarcerated for a rape he DID NOT commit. He had been released as the result of DNA tests that clearly demonstrated he was innocent of the charges. Charles had gotten free assistance from the volunteers of the Innocence Project and through their wonderful efforts he was freed.
Freed into a vacuum.
In the 23 years of Charles’ confinement
- His wife divorced him
- His children grew up without knowing him
- His parents passed
- All his friends forgot him
So the world he re-entered was a world stripped of everything he’d
- Known
- Cared about
- Loved
- Dreamed for
Charles had nothing that grounded him in time and space when he walked out of prison. All this loss for crime he did not commit.
His testimony at the meeting was so rich and power-packed I completely lost touch with my own troubles. His witness about how he came to surrender from his own anger, resentment, humiliation, and loss was more than any of us attending the meeting could absorb. How could someone who had been so wronged let go of his anger? It was like some angel had descended and wrapped us all in the cloak of the Serenity Prayer.
Charles had taught himself to stay fixed on the light and ever move away from the darkness. For 23 years he’d been his own teacher, and the lessons he learned brought him peace and sobriety.
Just a Thought…
Pat
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