My sedan gets better gas mileage, but Chrissy drives the pickup to work. It\u2019s newer and doesn\u2019t smell like an ashtray with power-steering.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been smoking in my car since I drove it off the lot, and through many failed attempts to kick the nicotine addiction that sank its hook in me when I was a teenager. I\u2019m 58 now, but that\u2019s just the number on my odometer. My actual miles are much higher.<\/p>\n
Chrissy refuses to drive an ashtray, so my car is scheduled for a deep clean. An enterprising young man who opened a detailing shop at the end of our street a few years back says he can exorcise the rancid ghosts of countless Marlboros with a magic machine known as an \u201cozonator.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019d been meaning to get the job done for years, but it took a war on the other side of the planet to convince me to drop in at the shop and ask for help. Some projections say pump prices could explode to over 5 bucks a gallon by summer.<\/p>\n
I work from home, so going forward, the truck will stay drydocked in the driveway most days. Chrissy will drive the older car, but it will at least smell \u201cbrand new.\u201d<\/p>\n
The solution was right down the street. I could have embraced it years ago, but drove past it almost daily. \u201cI\u2019ll drop in tomorrow,\u201d I muttered through countless self-owning yesterdays. My road to recovery was similarly prolonged by alcoholic procrastination.<\/p>\n
Like beat-up vehicles, the lives of addicts can be cleaned up and repurposed. The road to recovery is open to anyone willing to take it. This Saturday, while thousands of revelers fill downtown Scranton for the St. Patrick\u2019s Parade, the Divine Mercy Parish Mental Health Committee will host a drug and alcohol recovery workshop from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the parish hall, 312 Davis St.<\/p>\n
The free workshop will offer experience, strength and hope to addicts and their families and friends. Representatives of Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, AlAnon, the Way 2 Recovery and others will be on hand to educate and encourage anyone in need of a fresh start.<\/p>\n
The only remedy organizers haven\u2019t arranged for is an ozonator. There are no magic machines or shortcuts in recovery \u2013 just a choice to embrace the solution and do the work, which I\u2019ve learned is only as hard as I choose to make it.<\/p>\n
I made the choice to change a little over 7 years ago, and the work has been more than worth it. I\u2019m confident the 12 Steps that freed me from the alcohol abuse that nearly killed me will eventually liberate me from nicotine, too \u2013 but not until I\u2019m willing to make the choice and do the work.<\/p>\n
The obstacle, as always, is me.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m sober, not a saint. So for now, I still smell like smoke, but most days I feel brand new. You can, too. Consider this a nudge to drop in at the church and ask for help.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019ve been meaning to get the job done, there\u2019s no better time than now to leave yesterday behind and trust the future to unfold on its own.<\/p>\n
Life is best lived one day at a time. I\u2019m imperfect, grateful, living proof.<\/p>\n
CHRIS KELLY, the Times-Tribune columnist, is alive and in recovery by the grace of God and AA. Contact the writer: ckelly@scrantontimes.com; @cjkink on X; Chris Kelly, The Times-Tribune on Facebook; and @chriskellyink on Bluesky.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"My sedan gets better gas mileage, but Chrissy drives the pickup to work. It\u2019s newer and doesn\u2019t smell…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[1590,182,139,1559,1560,178,180,179],"class_list":["post-135522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-chris-kelly","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-opinion","tag-opinion-columnists","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}