Hello,

I am curious, Have you and Faith been travelling in Canada? If yes, where did you and Faith go?

How this dog is wetted? And if she should mark territory how this she does? On one leg?

If you were to tell me 5.5 years ago that I would be sitting in front of a computer telling perfect strangers that their family dog helps to inspire me to stay sober, I would have openly laughed in your face...

Let me introduce myself.

My name is Aaron L. and 5.5 years ago, after struggling for years with my own personal bout with addiction and alcoholism as well as several attempted suicides, I found 'a little faith.' 

The attending Nurse who oversaw my case had just come back from a mental health seminar in Oklahoma and since I was healthy enough to walk, she summoned me to her office for what would become our daily counsel sessions. I noticed that sitting right next to her computer was a 5x7 picture of a dog. One day, feeling rather full of myself, I asked her about the picture of the the little two legged tan puppy she kept on her desk, commenting rather indolently that she must feel just horrible about running over her family pet.  Looking up from her computer and paperwork with a rather blank expression, then glaring at me over the top of her gold rimmed bi-focal glasses, she spoke rather matter of factly.  " I can see hun, that you aren't too familier with the concept of God, let alone faith... well then, you'll have to work on that, if you're serious about living that is... now, let me tell you a little story...

As I sat listening to her recount the story of how she was struggling with her own recovery from addiction and sitting in a hotel room contemplating quitting her job and leaving her husband  and kids because people just didn't seem to appreciate her and that her boss was always hounding her ( forgive the pun ). She told me how she came to find restored "Faith" in the parking lot of the local motel she was staying at for the conference.

You see, I have come to believe that God has a really funny sense of humor, because the following happened.

She told me about her plane being late on arrival.  Then the hotel room she booked way in advance said they had smoking rooms.  She was a smoker, a smoker who ran out of cigarettes waiting for the taxi at the airport.  When she finally arrived at her hotel all the rooms had been claimed accept one, that room was a nonsmoking room, but being tired from all the stress of the day she took it. However, she was forced  to go outside to smoke.  Throughout the conference she had convinced herself that God had indeed abandoned her.  She sat on her hotel bed the following morning and cried out to God  "if you're there... if you're REALLY, REALLY THERE, give me some sign that you love me and want what's best for me, cause if I don't get some kind of sign from you, I might as well just go to the bar around the corner and drink until I kill myself."...

After her emotional breakdown and subsequent outburst, she grabbed her lighter and wen't out to light up.  Little did she know that God was indeed listening...

As she stood there outside her hotel room, a woman walked by followed closely by what she could only descibe at that point was a little person wearing a full length fur coat.  Apparently, Faith had found her, not the other way around.  Standing there contemplating her next move, be it "get busy living or get busy dying" as she put it.  Faith, came over to her, instincually I'm guessing and after that brief petting and insipring encounter with this fuzzy angel, her perspective suddenly changed.  You see, for me, I have come to believe that God doesn't speak to us in a booming voice but rather through experiences that occur in our daily lives.  That experience changed that womans outlook and in so doing, she was able to pay it forward to me.

After she finished telling me her story of finding "faith" in a motel parking lot I had nothing to say.  For the first time in 2 decades I was completely at a loss for words.  That  alone is a miracle in and of itself.  After being dismissed I went back to my room and layed there contemplating the gravity of what I just heard.  Considering I was supposed to be discharged the previous morning and was angry and full of fear about why I was being kept against my will and what would be my own next move...

The following morning as I awoke for my mandatory morning A.A. meeting, I found laying there on my bedside table a copy of that desktop picture she took of Faith at that motel with the following handwritten note attached...

 "Aaron, do yourself a huge favor, keep this photo with you, as a sign that God has a plan for everything and everybody, including you and when you feel like you're about to give in and self destruct, having a little faith on hand is a good way to remember God's love...

I hadn't cried in years. In fact, at that point I couldn't remember the last time I did cry, but the tears came and couldn't be stopped.  Sitting there on that hospital bed with Faith's picture in one hand and my head in the other, I could do nothing but think about the signifigance of the series of events that had occured over that last 16+ hours.

I still carry that picture of Faith to this day, in my wallet, right next to the serenity prayer card I recieved as a gift from my first sponsor.  I'm happy to report that I'm still sober 5.5 years later, My sobriety day is 12-10-03.

So, when the people I now sponsor in The A.A. program come to me with their inevitable bouts of emotional growing pains, I tell them the story of how faith can be found anywhere, even in the most unlikely of places... like walking through a hotel parking lot.  Then I pull out my picture, and tell them how they too can overcome life's little speedbumps by always having a little "Faith" closeby...

Thank you, and God bless you and yours.

Aaron L.