An addition to my gratitude list

It happened so quickly. Motion, second, no comments, and then a unanimous vote.

Just like that, our world is a little better. 
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The County Commission and Club Recovery of Citrus County agreed to a 5-year lease at the Historic Hernando School, creating the Old Schoolhouse Community Center.

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I wasn’t sure how it would shake out a year ago when we (I'm a CR trustee) approached Community Services Director Eric Head about an arrangement for Club Recovery to lease the building, providing a home for 12-step meetings.

Eric could see the vision right away. He and Club Recovery officers worked tirelessly to make this happen.

Here's the background. Club Recovery needed a new home, and it just so happens we have a historic building going unused for decades. 

It’s a perfect fit.

This is huge. For all the talk and press LifeStream gets for the new behavioral health campus it’s building in Lecanto, the real nuts and bolts of addiction and alcoholic recovery take place during 12-step meetings.

I think about that old school and the Hernando area residents who attended there as children. Then I think about the moms and dads who will be attending 12-step meetings in that same school building, hoping to have better lives for themselves and their families.

I owe everything to my sobriety. Since July 6, 2006, I’ve lived in a parallel universe. I’m the same person, but I’m not.

Sober drunks and druggies sometimes make gratitude lists to remind ourselves that we have it so good. This isn’t exhaustive, but you’ll get the idea:

— I’m alive. I met someone at my second 12-step meeting who, several months later, told me that when I walked in that day, she said to a friend sitting next to her: “I don’t know that guy’s story, but he’ll be dead in a week.”

Dead in a week. That’s how others saw me.

Eighteen-plus years later, and I ain’t dead yet.

— I retired from my job. The night before attending my first 12-step meeting, I called the Chronicle editor to say I was getting help. That phone call saved me. Rather than get fired for being a lousy drunk, I kept my job for another 15 years. Because sober Mike is a better reporter than drunk Mike, I repaired damaged relationships. 

— I'm on mission. Retiring in good community standing allowed me to start writing a blog. I knew nothing about running a business, and don’t know much more three years later, but I’m doing OK. Trying to figure it out day by day. Sobriety brings me clarity.

— Buddy. I sat with someone from the Citrus County Education Foundation on Wednesday to go over the Buddy Bandana Scholarship perimeters. I walked out of there shaking my head in wonder. How did this happen? I rescued a dog off the roadway (on my way to a 12-step meeting), adopted him at home, introduced him to the community, then he tragically died — and now we’re helping a graduating high school student who wants a career caring for animals.

The entire Buddy story is a sober story. 

— Bunny. I walk Bunny (she walks me) each morning at the break of dawn. I feel very alive during those walks. What a great start to the day.

— Just Wright Citrus. I get to write what I want five days a week. I don’t worry about writing something and then check the next day to see what I wrote. I make mistakes, but they’re innocent and fixable. Readers trust me.

Re-read that last sentence. Incredible.

And I can go on and on and on.

Look. Active drug addiction and alcoholism are HORRIBLE. Recovery is AWESOME.

That’s what Club Recovery and the county offer with the Old Schoolhouse Community Center. I picture a day when someone like me, defeated and broken, walks into that beautiful building for the first time and begins a new life. That’s going to happen. More than once.

Watch the blog in the coming weeks for updates as Club Recovery prepares to start hosting 12-step meetings in the old school by early April. We are so excited to serve the community.

It is a great day in Citrus County. Enjoy, friends.

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