"How did you do it, Dad How have you managed to not take a drink for almost 20 years" It took me almost 20 years to have the
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to even ask my father this very personal question. When Dad first quit
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, the whole family was on pins and
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every time he got into a situation that, in the past, would have started him drinking again. For a few years we were afraid to
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it up for fear the drinking would begin again.
"I had this little
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that I would recite to myself at least four to five times a day," was Dad"s
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to my 18-year-old unasked question. "The words were an instant relief and constant
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to me that things were never so
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that I could not handle them," Dad said. And then he
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the poem with me. The poem"s simple, yet profound words
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became part of my daily routine as well.
About a month after this talk with my father, I received a
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in the mail from a friend of mine. It was a book of daily affirmations with one affirmation
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for each day of the year.
It has been my
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that when you get something with days of the year on it, you automatically turn to the
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that lists your own birthday.
I hurriedly opened the book to November 10 to see what
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of wisdom this book had in store for me. I did a double-take and tears of disbelief and appreciation rolled
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my face. There, on my birthday, was the exact
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poem that had helped my father for all these years! It is
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the Serenity Prayer: God, grant me the Serenity to
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the things I cannot change; the Courage to change the things I can; and the
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to know the difference. Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment a time.