Neil Douglas-Tubb

The Metaphor Neil Douglas-Tubb

The Metaphor is a poem that takes the reader on a Healing is a journey through their life's experience ... There is an undercurrent to this poem and that is the 12 Steps. Years ago I was in a self made hole that was intensely painful and it seemed as if there was no way out ... I was a substance abuser ... Alcoholic to coin a phrase ... and up to my ass end in mud blood and beer. I wanted out ... this poem and the principles that I learned en route are what saved my life ... Thanks to Marty and Pat ... and Thanks to Larry. They threw me life lines ... This stuff works if you do it ... but only if you do ... there is no point on the journey where it is over ... healthy is a direction you go in for the rest of your life ... and here is away to pick up some tools to help you with the journey. It is the direction we need to go in for the rest of our lives. Most would like healing to be over, fixed, but it does not work that way ... the opening gambit of the work book covers that territory. It has been my belief since my earliest memory that "I am alone and my world is a dangerous place. My life seems to affirm this to me daily. I have found that I can only acquire the relief and happiness that I think I want by doing something or getting something. There are times when I feel I am so desperate, lost and alone." I have learned that when my best efforts fail me that I have gathered habits along the way that I can depend on. These habits are creations from outside of me and they are "magical." They take their form as substances, actions or facilities, things that I use daily just to get by on. I know that I can always reach out to them and rely on them. It is sad but true that these "magical" chattels are my addictions, obsessions and/or compulsions. The concepts contained in the proceeding two paragraphs outline the predicament that most of us find ourselves in. If you see and you have read this far then you have already launched yourself on a journey... THE JOURNEY OF FINDING SELF.