Acceptance

Mel Cook
5 min readFeb 23, 2021

A long road.

The air was cold and breezy on December 15, 2004. The midnight hour set in as the demons looked for light to cast their shadows. As time ticked forward the shadows began to dance. On this particular night, the shadows zeroed in on Melinda Cline.

Melinda was a loner, driven, focused, and a slave to the world. She was 35, a failed attempt at being a mom, recently unemployed, and an addict. She was also an addict that was hell-bent on losing herself. Although most people thought of her as a hard worker. Some thought of her as a smart dumbass. All of her jobs and relationships had failed. Her addiction defined her as a liar, a cheat, and a manipulator. She was suffering from a vicious cycle of using drugs to escape the grasps of low self-worth.

Melinda liked to think she was a recovering addict because there were many sober times. However, she was an addict all the same. She began to think of all the ways she failed others by lying and cheating. She felt like her behavior had led to ways of manipulation to feed her desires. How could anyone still be able to say they love her? She could not love herself.

On December 16, 2004, Melinda continued to battle demons. Accepting defeat, she tried to silence them and fell into a deep sleep. She woke up wondering why she wasn’t able to complete the task. Why her? What was so special about her…

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