ESSAY December 2022 - I Am the Only Person I Can Change, and That’s Hard Enough - Dan K., California, USA

I will try to share my experience, strength and hope as it touches upon the role my father Roy K. played in both my addiction and recovery. It's been a bumpy road for us both, thanks to our addiction and character defects. Of course our conflicts and issues were not the real problem. We just didn't see that at the time. We were caught in the grip of the blame game, one looking to fix the other instead of looking inward to fix ourselves. We tried to clean up each other's yard instead of cleaning up our own. It's hard enough to change myself, but impossible to change others. In fact I've found it impossible to change myself without practicing the spiritual principles found in SA. Principles such as forgiveness and accepting others as they are. "Live and let live"—the path to peace.