Looking to better himself and get clean, he made the move from Atlanta, Georgia to Nashville, Tennessee to enter rehab. 13 Years after making that move, he is still clean and sober today.
After finishing rehab in 2007, a Nashville business owner who believed in him offered not only a job, but also an apartment. The apartment was on Second Avenue over retail space and a restaurant below.
“You know what the issue is with this world? Everyone wants a magical solution to their problem, and everyone refuses to believe in magic.” - Alice in Wonderland
Broke Back, but Sober... Laughter Wins
His Starbucks Coffee had the name Patricia on it, his leftover food on his chair to the left of his foot was handed to him by a passerby, he broke his back.... but, he had humor and sobriety on his side.
Jason, who is on the streets of Seattle, Washington, knows that laughter helps him and others make it through the ups and downs in life.
A 2017 article in Forbes Magazine by David DiSalvo highlighted the pros to laughing and feeling good noting:
Laughter is an endorphin releaser
Laughter forms social bonds
Laughter fosters brain connectivity
Women typically laugh 126% more than men
Men usually instigate laughter
Laughter activates the release of the neurotransmitter serotonin
Laughter helps your heart... it has an anti-inflammatory
“Live with intention. Walk to the edge. Continue to learn. Play with abandon. Choose with no regret. Laugh! Do what you love. Love as if this is all there is.”
Albert is Sober
On a cool May morning he quietly sat next to the sidewalk in front of a McDonalds in Nashville. As cars pulled away with their breakfast, he would smile and give a wave. But, I wanted to know more about him than his simple wave.
As we talked he would lean his head back as if that helped to recall old memories. “I started drinking when I was 2 years old,” he told me. Unable to believe him I had to ask if he meant 2, as in the number after 1. He smiled and reconfirmed, “2.”
“I’m from Mississippi and my parents were cotton farmers. When I was 2 (in 1955) they’d feed me a shot of whiskey and I’d fall asleep while they worked the fields,” he explained.
He gave me insight into his life and told me he eventually landed in Memphis, TN and got married. His wife died in the not so far away past. After she passed away he moved to Nashville in search of employment and sobriety. He went through a program in LaVergne, Tennessee where he got sober, but the employment didn’t last. But, he has been sober for 8 months now.
Albert is 64 years old and sober for one of the first times in his life, which is huge.
"The best way out is always through."- Robert Frost
Sober and Alive
Sobriety is a big thing in the lives of many. Others simply don’t understand the struggle.
Thomas Jefferson, yes… that is his real name, understands the reality of the struggle, but noted that it gets easier and easier over time. Thomas has been sober for eleven years. He once lived under a bridge during his drinking days, but those days are long behind him. Today he has his own place.
A tattoo of rosary beads and a cross wrapped around his right hand reminds him of his mother who was a devout Catholic. A bear claw necklace is around his neck along with a cougar tooth weaved into his hair. Both are from Indian mythology with the cougar being legendary to the Seminoles and the Shawnee tribes. The Pueblo tribes saw the cougar as a directional guardian. As for the bear claw, it represented a protector and symbolized courage, physical strength and leadership among Indians.
“I personally believe this: We have only today; yesterday's gone and tomorrow is uncertain. That's why they call it the present. And sobriety really is a gift... for those who are willing to receive it.” ― Ace Frehley, former lead guitarist and founding member of the rock band Kiss
59 and Sober on the Streets of Music City
One man, alone from Michigan living in the woods with nine others who were at first strangers and now are friends is battling sobriety.
He is 59 and has been sober for a total of nine months thus far. He said at first, he was shaking all the time, but that has since passed. Now, he is starting to feel what normal is supposed to feel like.
He came to Nashville after growing tired of his family, he told me while outside at a busy intersection. “They drank all the time and always argued,” he said. Alcohol can often lead to heightened arguments that are needless while sober.
“That's all drugs and alcohol do, they cut off your emotions in the end.” - Ringo Starr
Sober today
He was sitting in the shadows of a large Chicago building on the concrete windowsill. His face looked as if it were carved, almost unreal. As I stood and watched people walked by I noticed he would talk to everyone as if he were digging for conversation. “Hello, beautiful evening,” he would say never discouraged by a lack of dialogue.
As I kneeled down in front of him he enthusiastically told me that he has been sober since October 25, 1998. He told me he got sober the day after he was arrested for burglary on October 24, 1998. I could tell he was proud.
When he introduced himself, he pulled out his ID card to show me his full name. He then showed me his debit card, I think he was proud to be clean and on his own.
54-Year old Alen Kilbert Jr. is doing great today. That’s the story that he gave me. He was all smiles as he talked about his past being just that, his past
“Laughter is day, and sobriety is night; a smile is the twilight that hovers gently between both, more bewitching than either.” - Henry Ward Beecher.