The Magic Show

Hi…  It is so nice to see you again.  As I promised, I am meeting you here to share some of the magic secrets I have learned at Doorway to Recovery.  Would you like to know what brought me there?  Well, I wandered in the front door seeking some much needed direction with my then 23 year old grandson who was serving yet another prison sentence.  I carefully lugged in a large cauldron of simmering, toxic emotions, known as my mind!  The situation had reached a crisis level and it was slowly eroding away my emotional foundation.

The fire under this simmering pot was fueled by guilt.  The guilt was constantly being stroked by inappropriate thoughts, which led to inappropriate and irrational behaviors.  It finally boiled over, affecting my very being and daily existence.  I was slowly being poisoned by my own thoughts and actions.  I was stewing  in my own juice!  It was violent, sad and crippling!

Further, I was the World Champion Enabler, which I had honed into a fine art!  I grew up with an alcoholic father and Grandfather, and alcoholic step-mother and stepfather, 7 of my 9 uncles were raging alcoholics and eventually my dear mother became drug addicted.  Her drug of choice was Percodan!  They all, every one of them, died from a direct connection to their addictions.  And yes, I am unfortunately all too familiar with the blood, the guts, the mud, the tears, the beer, the fights and abuse, more martinis and lots of Percodan!  These things, and worse, always keep close company with addiction.

In the middle of all this chaos and depravity, I contracted a nasty virus which left me paralyzed from the neck down.  I did eventually recover, but only after months of painful and lonely rehabilitation built around the philosophy of “never give up, never quit, never say you can’t, and I can fix anything!”  How about that for perfect training for a lifetime of enabling!  I proved I was a star pupil… teachers pet!  The clouds were gathering… the perfect storm was approaching!

Fast forward to many years later and there I was standing on the doorstep of Doorway to Recovery with a heavy load of baggage.  I had showed up for the 3:00 performance of the Mark Burchell Magic Show!  I was filled with elation to have found this resource as I fully expected, it would be here, that I would finally uncover the one thing that I must have overlooked that would be the magic to “fix” everything, including my grandson!  I reasoned that this magic show would pull that information and instructions out of a hat, and my eternal and destructive search for a “fix” would finally end!

Needless to say, I got the shock of my life… but I was not disappointed!  The magic proved to be nothing at all like what I was expecting… illusion was transformed into reality.  What a relief… and one of the secrets of this magic show was how to spell “relief”…  it is spelled B-I-B-L-E!  Read it and live it!  I also learned some of the tricks to a more balanced life… I gained my emotional eyesight back and it came with an excellent GPS system to navigate life and all the perils.  I also gained a magnificent personal bonus, a gift of a lifetime, but I will share that particular information when we meet again.  It is a story in and of itself!

The following is some of the magic I would like to begin to share with you, more will follow!  This is just the beginning.  I have found this to be of great value… it is tucked into my brain for future use!  This magic appeared, seemingly out of nowhere during the magic show… abracadabra… it will work for you too!

+    Never make a decision based on guilt!

+    Never postpone joy!

+    Emphasize the part of life you can control – lifestyle and mental attitude!  You can only control you!

+    Don’t do anything until you are asked, and then decide if you can do it, should you do it, and do you want to do it?

+    Love should not be crippling.  Some detachment is a healthy, neutral place to be.

+    Fear and worry are not the same.  Fear is put in us by God and needs to be addressed.  Worry has no purpose and can be set aside.  We create our own worry.

+    If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at will change.

+    Open your heart, unconditionally, and let Christ in!  Seek and follow His word… enjoy the magic!

More magic tips will appear in our next meeting.  The joy is in the seeking… the misery is in the denial!

Until we meet again,

Boom Boom LaRue