Never Poke A Lion In The Eye

Never Poke A Lion In The Eye

In the second act of my life I made my living as a building contractor. One of the lessons the man who sponsored me to become a contractor imparted was “When the workday is over stop working.” At the time this seemed pretty simple, if not downright painfully obvious. Kinda like never poke a lion in the eye. In time, however, I began to understand what he was really talking about. Working in construction there is always some little task that needs doing. I learned, through painful experience, once I stopped working for the day, having removed my tool belt and bags, not to put them back on. On more than one occasion, unfortunately, I spied a crooked nail, loose board or some other small task which could have easily waited until the next day, choosing instead to address it before going home. Right after the hammer slipped and smacked me on the shin or I hit the nail and heard the unmistakable sound of water hissing from a pierced pipe or missed the nail on the wall, hitting my thumbnail instead, I would then remember, belatedly, his words. 


In time though the deeper meaning behind this admonition began to dawn on me.  Most days long after I had physically left the job site I was still there in my mind, needlessly rehashing the days’ events or worrying about things I had no control over. Emmet Fox refers to this as “taking the train” mentally. Dr Fox taught, “don’t take the train mentally-let the engine take it” most of the things in my life that I have worried about never came to pass, and I bet yours as well, so “letting the engine take it” today means I let go of manufactured worries, morbid reflection if you like, avoiding needless mental wear and tear and “when the workday is over stop working.”  Oh, and I never poke lions in the eye, that would be foolish, just sayin.

Miracles Of Recovery  © Vincent Lee Jones All Rights Reserved

Miracles Of Recovery, Overdose Death, Alcoholism, Wayne Dyer, Drug Addiction, Zen, Emmet Fox, Opioids, Heroin, Einstein, AA, Healing Path Recovery, Drug Rehab, #Drug Addiction, #Drug Rehab, #Healing Path Recovery, #Heroin, #Opioids

Published by Vincent Lee Jones

Silk sheets or city streets, Park Avenue or park bench, addiction is an equal opportunity destroyer of lives. My name is Vincent Lee Jones and I have been in recovery since September 1985. My professional career began when I was nearly 20 years in recovery and was asked to work pro bono with at risk students at Huntington Beach High School. At the time I had developed a reputation within the at large recovery community as an effective communicator and was known to some of the faculty. After the death of two students from prescription drugs I was asked to start working with at risk students, which I did for nearly 5 years. Word of mouth lead to offers of compensated freelance Facilitator and Director positions with numerous local treatment facilities in the ensuing years. As a retired Building Contractor/Designer, working in conjunction with a treatment facility, I created a construction program utilizing a workforce comprised almost exclusively of people new or returning to recovery, helping them to not only learn a trade and start making a living but since many of them had relapsed numerous times, to begin truly building a foundation with real aftercare to live free of active addiction. This program changed many lives. In my 30+ years in recovery I have worked with thousands of individuals from all walks of life, teenagers to the retired, famous to infamous, prosperous to those living hand to mouth, adamant atheists to those embracing strong Religious beliefs; suffering from all manner of intoxicant and behavior-based addictions as well as those who love and care about them, both as a member in recovery Fellowships and as a treatment professional. I can be contacted at 714-366-1725. I write and publish daily a recovery based nondenominational spiritually based blog at https://livinginspirit.blogspot.com with accompanying videos that can be found as well on YouTube and LinkedIn at Vincent Lee Jones.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: