My life was already heading down a long slippery slope by the time I was 13 years old.   I had even had an abortion and was really into drugs and alcohol in a big way, as were most of my friends at the time.  Like most people these days I came from a broken home and as far as I was concerned it was my family that had put the "D" in dysfunctional.  So, as you can imagine, life was far from a bowl of cherries.  All I had to look forward to each day way yet more misery, despair and disappointment.

Don't get me wrong, I had been offered help time and time again.  But in my eyes I was quite simply the worst of the worst. I was beyond help, didn't deserve any and couldn't see why anyone else would think that I did to begin with.  Years and years of heavy drinking and excessive drug use had taken their toll.  I had gotten so low at one point that I couldn't even put a needle into my arm properly.  I was, without doubt, in such a dark, dark, scary place that I thought I had already died and gone to hell.

I'd been on the streets for years by this time and I can't even remember how I actually found myself sitting next to this old lady in the park that day.  Usually I avoided the park at all costs, but here I was and there she was.  Two complete strangers that shared nothing in common.  Usually people avoided all eye contact with me whatsoever, but she just looked me straight in the eye with nothing but love on her face and said "Hi there, my name's Monica and I've come to give you a miracle.  I've been watching you struggle for long enough now and have decided to give you a hand up.  Please accept my gift with the love in which it is given."  As she spoke I felt a warm tingling sensation fill my entire body as my head naturally turned upwards towards the sky above.

When I turned back towards the little old woman that had been sitting right beside me just moments before - she was gone, but a lone white feather was sitting where she had once sat.  I looked all around the park but it was empty, deserted even.  I knew then and there that I had just been given a miracle and an inner knowing that I was finally going to be okay seemed to permeate throughout my body.  True, Monica didn't have wings or look like an angel is supposed to look, but she was one all the same.  I've now been clean and sober for six years thanks to Monica's gift of love.   My life was forever changed in a matter of moments.  But then, that's all it takes.

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