Just last week I found a young girl overdosing alone in a slightly cut off space. I called 911 and waited with her until EMS arrived. This triggered me so hard I instantly started looking for a meeting to attend. All to find so few within a reasonable distance from my home.

This discovery made me reach out to NA and ask what I can do to change this. If I an addict clean for 13 years was so let down by the lack of local meeting what was happening to those that are still struggling to get and stay clean when they find the lack of local meetings? I was informed by NA that I can start my own meetings if I wish to and help change the situation that way.

So I decided that is exactly what I will do. I have begun to reach out to local churches and community centers to discuss the possibility of holding a meeting at there location and I have started the process of getting my meeting kit. I plan to write about each step of this and how it is going until the end where I finally have a time and space for the meetings.

The thought of someone looking for help and being unable to find it makes my heart ache. I can’t just let this be the way things are especially in my own backyard. Its time for me to make a real change and I am not giving up until I do.

I woke up this morning and went outside to smoke my morning cigarette as always. Except this morning wasn’t like any other morning. The parking lot was full of police and ambulances and crime scene trucks. A young man overdosed and passed away. This is becoming an all to regular sight in this world and it’s devastating.

My heart aches for his loved ones as they have now completely lost him to this demon. I hope he is at peace now and that his family will someday understand this was never their fault.

This is the reason I will never stop trying to change the world we live in. This is the reason I will never stop helping, or at least trying to help.

“At every stage, addiction is driven by one of the most powerful, mysterious, and vital forces of human existence. What drives addiction is longing–a longing not just of brain, belly, or loins but finally of the heart.”     -Cornelius Platinga