Halfway House, Sober Living News Winter 2007-2008
Hello Healing Properties Family!
Well, the cooler nights have arrived and “season” in southeast Florida is in full tilt. Holiday decorations adorn every window sill, street corner, and storefront. The palm trees are dressed in their twinkling lights and the electricity of the holiday air is infectious. The restaurants, boutiques and galleries aligning Atlantic Avenue stand at attention while anxious shoppers bustle in and out. When I moved to Delray Beach from New York City I was certain that I would miss the winter weather and the holiday festivities. I just knew that I could not ever get in the holiday spirit in 75 degree weather-as is often the case, I turned out to be dead wrong!
We at Healing Properties are rolling up our sleeves and gathering our resources for the holiday season as well. Historically, it is our experience that holidays are difficult times for people in recovery, especially early recovery. The paths of destruction left by the actions of drug addicts and alcoholics, the battlefields of broken hearts and broken promises, seem to ache more vividly at this time of year than any other. Amidst the holiday merriment, memories of treacherous behavior ebb and flow and force some of us to swallow hard. Next, the inevitable questions emerge-will I ever get better? Will this ever get better? Will they ever forgive me? Why me? What is the purpose behind all this?
It is our purpose and mission to remind each of our current and future residents that all of our paths are ultimately good if we so choose. The unifying powers of forgiveness, love, and compassion will transcend the divisions of dishonesty and betrayal every time. We at Healing Properties wish to affirm and reaffirm in word and in action that the “miracle of healing” is available to absolutely every human who works for it. We have seen the most breathtaking miracles unfold in this community-lives recreated, families reassembled and the message of recovery carried on. Holidays present a crossroads for each of us; we can return to the shadowy corners of our memories and resurrect the ghosts of old, or we can raise our eyes to the light-filled future of a new joy, a new bliss, a new serenity- the fruits of which we cannot even imagine.
This holiday season will be a time of choices for us all. It is our hope at Healing Properties that we are all empowered to make the choices that are the most satisfying to our innermost selves and the most rewarding to the greater good of all.
As we look to the New Year, we are calmly anticipating that which 2008 will bring. We are comforted to know that even with the coming and going of the holidays, the ending of one year and the beginning of a new year, we will be in our tiny corner of Delray Beach and West Palm Beach rehab watching the miracle of recovery take hold of men and women. We will be relishing in the work of recovery giving birth to that gleam of enthusiasm and confidence in the eyes of sober people. We will watch the promises of sobriety take root inside the people who work for them and blossom into something beyond their wildest dreams. We will guide you and watch you as you transform your life… and we will love every minute of it.
Happy Holidays, Happy New Year, and God Bless!
