I was born in a beautiful mansion with many rooms. Each room held a special treasure and the doors were always wide open, beckoning me to enter. Each room was named for the treasure it held. As a child I played in the rooms called wonder, interest, enthusiasm, and adventure. Then as I got a little older I began to spend time in some of the other rooms like friendship, intimacy, creativity, beauty and health. All was fine in my world.
Then at some point I began to learn about fear and along with fear came disappointment, frustration, anxiety and insecurity. It wasn't too long afterwards that I learned that a few drinks could chase these bad feelings away. With the bad feelings gone I could once more visit the rooms in the mansion. I enjoyed rooms called prosperity, success, and achievement.
I don't really know how old I was when the doors to the rooms in the mansion began to close. At first they closed very slowly over a period of years, but as I began to drink more the doors began closing faster. The first doors to close shut were to the rooms called interest, wonder and beauty. I became cynical. Then the doors closed to friendship and intimacy. I became divorced. Then the doors of enthusiasm and creativity closed. I became unemployed. One by one over a period years all the doors to the rooms in the mansion were closed shut to me. For the last year of so of my drinking I was living in the hallway. A life full of hope and promise had become empty and meaningless.
Then, entirely through God's grace, I had a moment of clarity that led me to AA. Today the doors to the treasure rooms in my mansion have reopened to me. There is nothing more exciting than going back into these rooms closed off to me for so long. I wouldn't trade the life I have now for anything that came before.