There was a time where the only thing I could ever want was to rip open that wrapping paper and find a Stretch Armstrong. Somewhere Along the line my wants drastically changed to me dreaming of unwrapping an eight ball of heroin for Christmas. Nowadays my gifts don’t fit under a Christmas Tree, and you can’t wrap the gift of an opportunity. For most “normal” adults, there is a gray area between Thanksgiving and Christmas where you get lost between whether you should be thankful for what you have or showering loved ones with gifts. The fact of the matter is for most drug addicts we don’t know how to be Thankful for anything and the idea of giving anything makes us cringe. Habilitat has given me a chance to take the horse blinders off and use my peripherals to see that there are much more layers of the onion that is my life than I ever thought imaginable. I am not just a Heroin addict who spends his days running from withdrawal and chasing the mythical dragon of addiction. I am a human with inherit value. I am not just a homeless man begging for your spare change. I have potential to one day be a father, a spouse, a contributing member of society. Some say it takes 30 days of repetition to create a habit. That may be true but after spending 10 years in the grips of drug addiction It’s going to take more than 30 days to break that habit. The idea of a long term, therapeutic community is simple and can be summed up in one word; Action. It takes action, hard work, integrity, and dedication to overcome drug addiction. Habilitat is a place that combines all those things into a cauldron and with the last final ingredient being other like-minded individuals, makes the perfect concoction necessary for success in sobriety. The idea of one person helping the next is something that should, and most likely was instilled in us all at a young age, was somewhere lost along the way. This Holiday season I challenge you to take one of our philosophies that we teach here at Habilitat a chance to change the life of someone. “You can’t keep it unless you give it away.” Think of someone less fortunate in everything you do. Pay it forward. After all there is only one human race and we’re all co-inhabitants of this spherical place we call Earth. The taker’s hand will always be empty, but the giver’s hand will always remain full.