Milkman’s Birthday Thoughts and thanks

Milkman’s Birthday Thoughts

Thanks to everyone that wished me a happy birthday.

Ya know, when ya gets to be my age, you don’t really relish the idea of having another birthday, lol. When we’re kids, we just can’t wait, as we start growing up, we wait for our birthdays so that life will reward us with more privileges that life and society has to offer. Becoming a legal adult, being able to get a drivers license, a marriage license, the privilege (?) to drink legally and many others, depending on what part of the world you may be from.

Most of the folks that are on my friends list here on FB are in recovery, or connected to recovery, as those are the folks that I’ve added and those are the folks that I can identify with and feel comfortable sharing recovery with. If some of you aren’t recovering or even active addicts or alcoholics, bear with me. I’m trying to learn how to live without the aid of mind altering substances. Your comments on my posts and shares are always welcomed.

Being an addict/alcoholic in recovery, all those “legally to do’s” above, I abused and misused to the full extent of my being. You see, I’m not just addicted to drugs and alcohol, but to life itself and everything that it contains. There is no “just one”, no “take it easy” for me in anything. I always want MORE! MORE!!! I wanted more birthdays so that I could go out and “celebrate” more.

On my 18th birthday, a friend of mine and me got drunk and drove around in the rain. He being an alcoholic also, put us driving in the rain, drunk, and ending up in a car wreck in Redwood City. We showed’em! We’re adults now, lol. He broke his nose on the steering wheel; my head went thru the windshield and back, ending up with over 80 stitches. He rear ended a woman that was pregnant, and by the grace of God, she didn’t lose the child, and we didn’t lose our lives. I lost about 2 pints of blood, had my head bandaged like a turban, but that didn’t stop me from going out the next night and drinking a half pint of vodka, and getting “shit faced” due to the lack of blood in my body. I should of known then? that I had a problem?

Thru the years, there were many more episodes that ended up with negative results while celebrating my birthdays. Many birthdays were spent behind bars, but most ended up with me passing out from excessive “celebration”.

In closing, I have to say, that I missed out on a lot of memories of my birthdays and a large part of my life due to alcohol and drugs. These last 10 years, clean and sober, leave me with GOOD memories. I don’t find the need or urge to celebrate these days, only the need to be grateful for each day that I’m allowed to spend here on this earth. The gratitude to take that first breath in the morning, the gratitude to be able to remember what happened last night, and of course, as most of us can say, knowing where my car is, lol.

I’m 64 today, but sure don’t feel it in my mind. Probably due to growing up at such a late stage in my life. I was 53 years old when I got clean and sober, and what a difference a day makes. The incarceration “breaks” every couple of years might have something to do with my physical well being and health. I sure didn’t give my body a break when I was drinking and using, that’s for sure.

Hope you all are smarter than I, at an earlier age. You’re worth it, all of you.

Thanks again to all, for the birthday wishes, and that will be my celebration for the day. (well, maybe some good old chocolate cake and ice cream might be in order, lol)

Have a great day everyone, I know I will.

Milkman Mike