A prince had some monkeys trained to dance.
Being naturally great mimics of men’s actions,
they showed themselves most apt pupils, and
when arrayed in their rich clothes and masks,
they danced as well as any of the courtiers.
The spectacle was often repeated with great applause,
till on one occasion a courtier, bent on mischief,
took from his pocket a handful of nuts
and threw them upon the stage.
The monkeys at the sight of the nuts forgot their dancing
and became (as indeed they were) monkeys instead of actors.
Pulling off their masks and tearing their robes,
they fought with one another for the nuts.
The dancing spectacle thus came to an end
amidst the laughter and ridicule of the audience.
We can train the gambler to be like the monkeys. Like the monkeys, we can learn to mimic or behave like a normal person in the beginning and not gamble. We can even stop gambling for a long period of time and look like we are cured. Everything we do shows we are doing well in recovery but in reality. THE BEHAVIOURS OUTSIDE HAVE CHANGE BUT THE PERSON INSIDE HAVE NOT.
“Not everything you see is what it appears to be.”
Our painful past does not lie; how many times have we fallen for the nuts in our life like the monkeys.
Our recovery is a constant personal battle to change ourselves inside out
We must not be carried away by the praise and the false picture that we see in our recovery.
Sometimes the beautiful and hopeful picture in the first year of abstinent
look exactly like the calm before the big storm arrives.
Until the ship has experience and weather all the storms in the roughest seas
that life has to throw at us in the next 5 years and still remain abstinent and safe,
can we truly say that we are proven stable.
My last bet: 23 April 2024,
Every day is like my first day in recovery.
Take one day at a time
Gamble free days: 399.
Lasting change is what we are after.