Author's Note: If you know me personally and have been invited to partake in this blog, please refrain from passing judgement on me as a person. I have limited space and time here in which to encapsulate the experiences of one hell of a life and I'm doing my best. Thank you.
Okay, this is my first official posting on this blog, not for lack of desire, but as you'll come to see my resources, both chronological as well as physical are very limited.
First, a brief explanation of the title of this posting and of the blog itself I guess;
Just For Today: My name is Justin and I am a greatfully recovering addict. For those who don't know, the phrases "Just for today", or "One day at a time" are commonly used by people in twelve step recovery programs, AA/NA/GA etc... as a reminder that by practicing the Twelve Steps of recovery as first outlined in the book "Alcoholics Anonymous" we are able to abstain from our addictive behaviors and, more importantly, recover from the deliterious state of mind that induces them for a period of no longer than 24 hours. Every day, given the spiritual principles the program teaches me is an opportunity as well as an obligation to be a productive member of society.
In The Shadow Of Greatness: I am also, as a direct result of my addiction issues, homeless. I mean that in the most literal sense: though I have resided for periods over the last couple of years in various recovery/halfway houses, in-patient programs, jails etc... I will sleep tonight, like last night on a park bench. You wouldn't know it if you bumped into me on the street, I don't stink, I groom and bathe regularly and change clothes daily... there is a difference between being homeless and being what most people think of as a 'bum', but it is still the truth of my situation.
I didn't choose that title because of me and I'm not really writing this about me, there will be enough time for that later. Suffice it to say that I created this situation for myself and I am blessed in that if I continue to stay clean and sober one day at a time, I will build myself a way out of this situation and be a better man for it.
I'm writing because every day the government is shutting down more and more programs and services.
Here in Philadelphia we are losing almost six-hundred (600) beds in men's shelters this year alone.
Every day you can sit outside the family shelter and watch women with infants crying because they've been turned away and have no where else to go.
I may not lay my head down with a full stomach every night and as the days go on I'll share more in this space about my own struggles including the fact that I may well soon lose my own son to foster care because he and his mother might be out on the street. But I thank God every night that I am healthy and can go out and look for work and take occasional side jobs that come my way here and there.
I'm writing this to ask you to be aware, whatever city or town you live in, there are shadows where people like me sleep at night. Some of us know we put ourselves there and struggle every day to make it back to the light, but some can't, especially the babies, pray for them because chances are someone prayed for you.
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