Dave F.

Articles from Publisher Dave F.

 

My name is David F. I was born in Philadelphia in 1945. My family relocated to New England when I was fifteen. I lived in Wayland, Massachusetts and graduated from High School there in 1963. I started college in 1964 and became a "Boston Common Hippie". College was off and on through the sixties and early seventies. I was married had two beautiful children. I managed to graduate from Northeastern University in 1972 with a Liberal Arts Degree in English.

The failure of my marriage after six years led to a downhill slide through the dark side of drug addiction and alcoholism leading up to my introduction to a twelve step program on September 8, 1977. I have been clean and sober ever since.

Over the last twenty-eight years I have worked as teacher, market research analyst for a major corporation in the electronics industry, a direct care supervisor in several treatment centers in South Florida. In 1993 I started a small newsletter for the recovering community of South Florida and published it bi-monthly as I continued to work in the field of addiction recovery.

In 2001 I decided to see if I could expand the newsletter into a newspaper and support myself through the paper and other creative abilities including free lance writing and photography. So far this has worked out well. The Solution Newspaper has become a trusted and respected publication for the recovering community of South Florida. Just as South Florida has become the the recovery capital of America The Solution News has become the finest recovery newspaper in America. Until recently the paper was only available to recovering people in South Florida. My dream is to provide this paper free to anyone in the world through this web site.

By living a relatively simple life I have been able to enjoy the freedom to work at what I love. In 1991 I had come to a turning point in my career. I was burned out and depressed. I read Emmet Fox's wonderful essay "Your Heart's Desire". I prayed and meditated and while riding my motor scooter along the beautiful south Florida coast the idea of a newsletter based on the principles of "love and service" came in to my consciousness. With the help of a few friends who believed in my dream I was able to publish my first issue. The paper is the result of this labor of love and it is a blessing to be able to share it with you.

Spirituality

I was outside one day on the beach with my camera and a sky writing plane flew overhead and wrote some biblical passages in the sky. It was a beautiful South Florida day and I was doing some of my favorite things including riding my bike, walking on the beach, taking pictures and snorkeling for shells. I was feeling great, full to the brim with gratitude for the life that I live. Although the word God written in the sky many years ago would have gone unnoticed, in my new life it was just one more reminder of spirituality in my life. How long had I suffered from a lack of connection with God. How blessed was I to find a discipline of living that understood the need for a connection with a Higher Power but that chose not to define that power for me.

There is no doubt that I had been suffering from a disease or as it was explained to me a “dis”--- “ease”. This “dis”--- “ease” was caused by my separation from that power. The separation was caused by self-centeredness that manifested itself in drug addiction, alcoholism and many other forms of self involvement that became addictions.

The disease caused a “hole in my soul” where my consciousness of God used to be. God was always there but my consciousness of him had been gone for a long time. For me to triumph over my addictions it was necessary to put God back in that hole so there would be no room for all of the addictions and behaviors to flourish. I was encouraged to find a Higher Power, turn my will and my life over to that Power and to increase my conscious contact on a daily basis.

Thank God there was no one waiting inside the door to tell me the where, what, when, how and why of that Power. That is religions job. One of my thoughts about the evidence of the existence of God is the fact that our program chose the spiritual rather than the religious route to this healing power. The Higher Power had to be working in the group consciousness of our founders to keep this door wide open to all who wished to avail themselves of the program. A religious approach would not work for many as it would eliminate too many potential suffers and become exclusive. Our program is spiritual and therefore inclusive. Believe how you will but join us in the solution. So we welcome all religions, faiths and non-believers and we invite them into our felloship with love and kindness to share our spiritual journey.

One of the great pleasures of my current life is the opportunity to spend two hours a week facilitating a Spirituality Group at one of the many local treatment centers. I literally inherited this job from my wonderful sponsor David DeOreo who passed away last year. At first I was overwhelmed by the responsibility and I remember going to my first group with a huge box of books, DVD’s, handouts and recovery materials. I had the idea that I had to entertain the group with lots of bells and whistles. I was very uncomfortable after the first group so I prayed about it, talked to David in my prayers, and then remembered his approach to this group. All he brought to the group was his experience, strength and hope, his kindness, wisdom and love. In other words his spirituality.

Since that day the group is wide open. We talk about the 12 steps, football, nature, music, friends, loved ones, ideas about religion, sometimes even politics and often the opposite sex (it is a men’s group). It works just fine for I believe and try to teach that we are spiritual beings having a human and spiritual experience. All the things we love whether its our family or Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, our friends or the Boston Red Sox, are related to our Higher Power. How wonderfully human and spiritual is it to get back the capacity to love

So we find God everywhere, we listen and he talks to us, we see and we see his work. How I am rewarded every day as I stay open to His presence in my everyday life.

The guys in my group smoke behind the mall where the group is held. Last week I found this gang of macho, testosterone laden addicts fussing over the babies of a wild duck. She had given birth to them them right outside the door behind a bush. Some days God makes it so easy for me to be His transmission line!!!

 

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