I mentioned in a previous entry about the fact that the road to recovery isn’t always smooth. I started my recovery process in April, 2005, fully aware that it could cost me everything.

Today, it has.

I spent the afternoon helping set up for the Celebrate Recovery One-Day Seminar and Advanced Leadership Training , getting my laptop set up and connected, testing everything, converting the PowerPoint files to Keynote, etc., and decided to check my e-mail on the iPhone as I was entering the Shells restaurant in Brandon to have dinner with the Saddleback Church staff and John Baker (the founder of the program).

E-mail #1 in my mailbox started (for the sake of privacy, this is the only portion you’ll get to read):

I write this with sadness, and probably should have
talked but we have always communicated better in
writing. I am convinced it is time for us to live our
lives separately. We both seem to be happier that way.
We actually lived separately when we were in the same
house.

On New Year’s Day I gave my wife until January 15th to decide whether to move back in to the house or to file for a divorce, because I was tired of excuses and game-playing and it just seemed that it was time to come to a decision about what’s next. She chose to file.

In today’s postal mail, there was a solicitation letter dated January 10 from an attorney in Lakeland. It’s not unusual for attorneys to look through the local court files for recently-filed cases that may provide them with a potential client.

Re: Case # 2008DR-000200-0000-00

Dear Sir or Madam:

If you have already retained a lawyer for this matter, please disregard this letter. A recent review of the Polk County Clerk of Court’s files show that someone has recently filed a civil action against you.

The letter continued on about his experience in “cases involving divorce, child custody, or child support issues” and to offer a free consultation. It was stamped “ADVERTISEMENT” in red at the bottom of the letterhead as well as on the envelope. I’ll probably see a few more of this kind of letter in the next several days.

So, with an e-mail, it’s over. Somewhat perversely poetic that a relationship that started online, ended online.

In life, and in recovery, some stories and some chapters don’t have happy endings. Sometimes God has to strip all the way down to the foundation in order to start building again. Such is my case, and I must accept it.