The Opiate Path
The Opiate Path
When the first shadow of the Opiate thought travels into our mind we must recognize the thought and quickly push it out. It is only when we let the Opiate thought travel too far that our peace then gets stolen. We could be having a great day full of peaceful thinking, only to then get our peace stolen after shoveling the driveway for 90 minutes. This 90 minute shovel caused a slight uncomfortableness in our back to take form, which then our memory unlocks the Opiate remedy, and since its Saturday night anyway-then all of the past experiences of using Opiate not only for back pain, but also to have a good relaxing Saturday night on, come flooding back into our mind - and then the WAR begins.
We start envisioning how the night can go on Opiate; and our imagination during such a time seems to work best, where our thoughts are vivid and powerful, even painting the perfect picture of the perfect night. We imagine positive conversations unfolding; even conversations that will lead to proactive speaking since the euphoric thinking will then lead to a euphoric flow in our speech; so we think.We imagine hanging out with our wife and kids, and Opiate helps us to see the relaxed and proactive father that we can be while on Him. Our thinking then tells us that since we haven't taken Opiate in a while, that all will be well with our decision to take Opiate on this night, and that its not that big of a deal to take Opiate on this night because of the fact that we have shown, in the past, that we can be somewhat moderate in the way that we take Opiate. So now the thought has traveled to far, and it is more than likely that we are going to strive to make that picture that we have so vividly created within our minds into a full blown reality- because in a weird way we are already high. The mind is so powerful in this sense in that the memory of past use triggers our natural dopamine to flush into our mind, causing a unique euphoric feeling to unfold, then creating a craving that affects our mood. Anything that we may have been active in; or any plans or reservations that we may have had, are now put aside, and our only focus now is on making that Opiate thought into something real. So now we move on, manipulating the night in a way that will align perfectly with where Opiate wants it to align. The phone call, and then the waiting; and during the waiting, time seems to travel slowly. It's almost as if the clock gets put on pause, where every two minutes that go by only count as one. Now our once so peaceful afternoon, where we were working on our relationship with God through reading, prayer, and scripture study, has now been stolen; and even those peaceful spiritual thoughts have been stolen, almost creating a new character within us, and one that is dark and selfish. The charitable soul has left, and selfish soul has entered. The plans that we had before, of going to dinner and a movie with our wife, are not even really plans anymore, unless of course-we do make our vision come true. We don't feel as if we can enjoy anything unless we receive that something from Opiate; that something being relief from the so called pressures of the world, only we are still trying to use that back pain from shoveling excuse to help mask our only wanting to escape reality. That's what it really has become; the craving for the escape-and the want for the euphoric thinking. The back pain concept was only an excuse for us to travel towards the way of Opiate. And traveled towards the way of Opiate we have; and traveled towards the ways of God we have not, for Gods ways are simple and not euphoric, in which His happiness is spread out and does not come all in one rush as the Opiates false happiness comes. Opiates way is short lived. Gods way is long lived, however, His highs are not highs in the way that we sometimes would hope-because they are not highs associated with the the quick and immediate pleasures of this world, but are highs that only come from being charitable and less selfish in the way that we travel through life. Opiate can't help us to appreciate life's beautiful intricacies like God can. Opiate will lead us away from good sounding inspirational music; God will lead us towards good sounding inspirational music, for he will help us to be more receptive and appreciative for such sounds, then allowing emotions and memories to travel back into our minds, then creating a most magical high, and one that will be lasting. Opiate won't allow us to enjoy scenery- or to even be physically active in nature. God will open up vistas for creative thinking to unfold while participating physically in nature. God will help us to see the beauty of the planet that we all live upon, and how by creating unique experiences for ourselves in such beautiful areas will lead to feelings of gratitude towards all things, and even to having a love for all people and things, then leading us to acting in a way that will be in line with the spiritual. Opiate blocks the spiritual rays, where we cannot feel the warmth that spirituality can offer us. Opiate's offer is in the shadows; Gods offer is in the light. When we travel in the shadows for a time, it gets harder and harder to get back to the light, however, it is possible - since God can help us to overcome all things.