A young man not yet thirty was in the process of putting the pieces of a puzzling life back together.
It had appeared to teammates that the pieces might never fit neatly in place…that his obsession with partying and substance abuse was a downward spiral like a toilet with a handle stuck in the flush mode.
At rock bottom and closer to death than a rabbit approaching a rattlesnake, he stopped the lying and the countless excuses.
The young man entered treatment…not before trying to escape from the vehicle taking him to rehab. Fortunately for him, the door had been locked or this story would have ended much differently.
Some time during the second week of treatment, he asked a female counselor how she dealt with all of the trauma at work and the stories patients related about drinking and drugging themselves to hell.
This is what she said…
”At the end of each workday, I walk to my car, and before heading home,
I have a ritual. I picture all of the patient’s pictures on a bunch of balloons.
One by one, I address them…pray for them, and release them to heaven with love”
Returning the next morning, she gathers up the patients for another day of building a bright and lasting forever.
One patient wrote…”I was a face on a balloon…patient by day, released with love at night.
I found this beautiful.
To be thought of so…. “
The story is from the incredible book You Can Get There From Here by Barry Buss
What You’re Saying