Recovering Hope

My name is Barbara Gerlach and I am a recovering addict. My view of hope is a flower struggling to break through a slab of concrete. Others would know hope as intoxicating, for lack of a better description. If you see hope, even if it's not your own, it's impossible not to get some. It's contagious; I am infected. I nurture my hope and if I ever need more I never have to go far.

I love alcoholics and drug addicts. I am blessed to be able to see hope spark, then smolder and burst into flames within people whom no one else but another alcoholic can help. I am uniquely qualified to help people who are often considered hopeless, and most of the time hopeless is accurate in describing what I was like before I recovered. I found that GOD and the twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous was the way to break those chains that held me down. my addiction ruled my life as it does with so many people.