Clean and Sober

At dinner tonight I realized that today is the 10th anniversary of me going clean and sober.

Labor Day, 1999.

I was sitting on a boat in the middle of Lake Havasu observing the general shenanigans (very little of it legal) that go on at Havasu or any one of a dozen beach towns during spring break. I was partaking of several substances which have been shown scientifically not to improve brain function...

God opened my eyes in a very literal way. I can only describe it as the feeling of opening your eyes after receiving a concussion - everything's weird, bright and somehow brand new as though you have never seen it before. My immediate reaction was of revulsion - followed quickly by pity....

• Why did those guys not feel like they could face the real world without being stumbling drunk?

• What pain must that girl have suffered that she feels the need to prostitute herself for the sake of attention?

• Where is my life going, sitting here smoking and drinking my mind into numbness?

I tossed out what I was doing and that was the end of my substance abuse. It wasn't through my strength of character, my insight or my will power. It was literally a miraculous moment.

It's been the defining event to which most of who I am now can be traced. My marriage, my family, finishing college, coming to Ukraine - it all stemmed from that semi-road to Damascus moment on a boat on a river....

I can't believe it's been 10 years already.