The Frog in the Pit
There once was a frog who sat in the bottom of a pit. Wherever he looked, the frog saw the high muddy walls of the pit. But when he looked up, he saw a patch of blue sky.
The sky is so beautiful, the frog would think as he gazed up, Even if it is so small.
One day, a crow landed by the side of the pit.
“Hello,” the frog called up. “Where have you been today?”
“Flying to and fro across the sky,” the crow replied.
“What do you mean?” said the frog. “The sky is so small. How could you possibly spend your entire day flying across it?”
“The sky is not small!” said the crow. “I have been flying my whole life and have not seen the end of it yet.”
“No,” said the frog. “I can see all of it from here. It’s just a patch of blue up there.”
“Well,” the crow chuckled. “Perhaps, if you use your legs and hop out, you can see for yourself how big the sky really is.”
The Pit of Addiction
Addiction tends to suck you into a pit of hopelessness. You can’t see anything but the walls of mud around you: the legal trouble, the unemployment, the hospital bills.
Some days, you do dream about how your life could have been—how things could be different from how they are now—but it seems like an impossible dream.
Maybe you’re staring at the sky, or what little bit you can see through in the haze of addiction, but you don’t see the point of dreaming while you’re surrounded by walls of your disease. It’s not like you can ever get out of that pit, right?
Wrong. That hopeless feeling is a lie—a lie so often spun by the disease of addiction.
Kate’s Journey out of the Pit
Kate, a former guest of Duffy’s thought it would be easier to stay in the pit of her addiction. After all, “Why bother trying to improve myself if I’m not going to go anywhere?”
But she was wrong about herself, about her circumstances. Things did improve. And In the process, she began accomplishing things she never dreamed possible.
Her story isn’t just about recovery from addiction, it’s about hope. Whether you’ve relapsed this weekend, or you’ve had a big disappointment at work, Kate reminds us that, even in the worst moments of our life, there is always hope.
Dare to Dream
Don’t be like the the frog in the bottom of the pit, deluded into thinking you’re destined to be eternally trapped by the walls of your disease. Seek help. Try to accept the help that is offered to you. Find out just how much you can really accomplish.
You may, like Kate, find that you’re dreams aren’t impossible after all.
“I am capable of doing big things. I am capable of having a good life.” -Kate