Name: Gez F
Age: 39
Born: Manchester, UK
Home: Heaven
Sobriety Date: Feb 22 1988
Interests: Everything
Hobbies: Soccer, Music, Gadgets
Contact #'s- 609 456 8857

The Gezemiah Chronicles

Gezemiahs Blog Spot

I began drinking for effect from early on in life, Id first gotten drunk before the age of 10, I was introduced to cannabis as early as 12/13 and progressed throughout the realms of substance abuse until the age of 21. During that time I had experienced the nature of addiction in many different ways: partaking of speed, of heroin and of various hallucinogens at regular intervals, forming habits that needed hospitalization, psychiatric reports, legal difficulties, criminal proceedings and all sorts of social deviance. I lost friends, I lost family, I lost jobs. I failed to take opportunities, to meet appointments, to simply overcome the easiest of tasks, spending a large portion of my early adult life as officially having No Fixed Abode, (in laymen's terms I was homeless). You might want to read the stories of alcoholics in the AA Big Book (follow the link), alcoholics and drug addicts really lose a lot but  today I want to share with you the joy of sobriety.

I think the greatest treasure I have found since getting sober is God...how cliché' huh? Yeh I know but... This God of mine has introduced me to the meaning of life, has fascinated me with the relationships I have been able to uphold, with the nature of mankind and their history. He has offered me a reason for being in the person of Jesus Christ and it is Jesus who has revealed to me the true nature of myself. Whooooaaaa I hear you say what the heck has this to do with anything? It has everything to do with me, with my alcoholism, with my sobriety. Let me try to explain how it works for me while recognizing this might begin, if it hasn't already, to sound like a little Christian apologetic.

I am completely lost in a sea of drink and drugs to the point of desiring death by the age of 21, there is little or no love in my life, (in that I don't want love or I am incapable of choosing love), I don't like me and I don't like you, in fact there is not too much that I really have any interest in, by the end, and so I use drugs to get me through what has become a mere existence...not a life. Something happens to me, I come to an stop, or a point in the road where there are decisions to be made and I finally choose the way of love, the way of life.  It is simply a beginning, an initial change takes place and the evolution of this new way will eventually consume me, engulf me, immerse me with such peace, such joy, that it seems no words can express without sounding like a COMPLETE weirdo or a scam artist. I believe what happened was a dramatic confrontation with truth, with God. It took place in the back of a police van on Feb 22 1988 in a moment of grace and my life began to change.

The story of my sobriety began with a dramatic conversion experience. Now I believed in a God, and that was all good but from here on in I had to begin to live, not simply exist, and this has proved the more fruitful part of my conversion. Learning to be a son, a brother, an uncle, a friend, etc. etc. ad infinitum. It is not easy to live a good life without the aid of mind/heart/life altering chemicals. Simple stuff, doing the dishes, washing clothes, paying bills, holding a job, watching my tongue. Having to deal with my character defects as well as yours, my shortcomings as well as yours. It has not been easy trying to replace vice with virtue, (ask the people who have been, and are currently in my life), it has not been easy trying to change...nor do I believe it will ever be easy but that's ok...there is a way.

This masterpiece was recreated by my Welsh "butty" Brian Warburton and is my favorite Marian image. For more of Brian's work Click Here