Pool Th By Patrick Sampey
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aturday, December 18th, 2021 -- (Pool is therapy) Today I have 127 days in recovery from Alcoholism. Iâve had much longer periods of abstaining from drinking that intoxicating nectar I came to love back in my youth, Army days and nights. I should have over a year of sobriety at this point, but slipped up a few times, few times too many through the years. Hopefully Iâm done with all that now, but Iâve said, ânever againâ too many times to say that again. Now I agree to the âone day at a timeâ adage from Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). And I believe, though 127 days is nothing more than a start, I feel that my drinking more recently was minimal, though risky, hence the reason I abstain now. In AA they give you a white chip the first day, when you give your will over to a âhigher power,â which some call âGod,â but people that focus on the âGodâ aspect of AA miss the point I think. The point is to give your will over to the universe, advanced space aliens, God, the Sun, Karma, the Tao, Science -- whatever you would consider a âhigher power.â Why? Because going under our own will, we alcoholics found ourselves âpowerlessâ over alcohol. So when you give it over to a âhigher power,â that is a powerful thing,
empowering -- even if it is the âplacebo effect.â The AA book references God as a âhigher power,â which can be anything above and beyond humanity. Whatâs all this have to do with pool? What does billiards have to do with it? Well, a year ago around this time, I was just out of 12 Oaks Recovery center down in Navarre, FL for alcoholism and mental health treatment -- 30 day in patient; and Iâve swam in the bottom of so many beer cans, but somehow Iâm still here to tell the story, and pool has actually helped me not drink, and helped my mentality as well. Pool for me has been therapeutic. In 12 Oaks, we had days with âmusic therapy,â and I was thinking how music is good therapy for mental health -- and how much I enjoyed the music therapy days. But all that said, the music 59
