Hair of the Dog: More Thoughts on Recovery

By Heidi Heath Garwood

How could I not go?

A year ago, I heard from a friend who had been on mission trips to Zambia many times. She had talked to a pastor there who had alcoholics coming into his church and wanted to know what he should do. My friend called me, knowing I was in recovery.

I went online to find a meeting. Realizing that the nearest one was over fifty miles away and very few people there have cars, I decided to prepare materials for them on how to start a meeting. I went to my recovery group meetings at my church and got funding to buy books to send. I packed up the books, included notes on how to run a meeting, and merrily sent off the package to Africa. The package got stuck in customs and never arrived. Four months went by. I was very disappointed.

Months later, out of the clear blue, I heard this distinct message from God,
I didnt want you to send books. I wanted to send you.

I did not want to go to Africa, but I knew in that moment I would go.

Not only was I in Zambia talking to women about alcoholism on the day I got sober exactly ten years prior; I was speaking on the hour I got sober. God was very specific about where I should be on that day. Not in a million years did I think that I would be talking to people in Africa ten years later about staying soberI was just trying to stop drinking for that day in 2004!

While there in Zambia, I got to visit that pastor and sit across from him in his dirt floor church talking about his meeting for alcoholics. I realized that God had taken me halfway around the world to encourage this one manand that was enough.

My purpose now is to carry this message to other people who struggle with addiction as I have struggled in the past and to let them know there is a solution and there is hope.

My hope is that this book encourages you and lifts you on your recovery journey.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Oct 10, 2016
• ISBN: 9781512757842

Heidi Heath Garwood

“My name is Heidi. I am an alcoholic in recovery.” That is how I introduce myself now. Although I don’t drink anymore, the disease of addiction needs to be addressed and treated daily with a commitment to telling the truth and staying connected to God and to others like myself. Writing these books began as a strong call from God to write them to help others. These are simple realizations coupled with my photography and meant for alcoholics and addicts to identify with and to relate to, thoughts to read and for them to consider and to know that they are not alone on this road to recovery. These books are fifteen-minute reads—fifteen thoughts, fifteen photos. I realized in my own early recovery that this was the short information-receiving window I had! As a transformed woman with 4,378 days of sobriety (12 years), I know that I could not do this without God. Period. I would not bet on anyone staying sober without getting the concept of surrender to God. I am forever grateful for God speaking through me with these simple reads. People have told me they have given these books to someone who was “thinking” about getting sober but could not do it before this. They have come back to me and told me about the miracles of these gentle messages being received by their loved ones and them deciding to get sober. My husband, Dick, and I live on the coast of California in a sweet little town called Aptos. He is a retired dentist. I have had my own graphic design business, Heath Design, serving the Silicon Valley high-tech industry for over thirty-five years. I didn’t start writing until after I got sober in 2004, three days before my fiftieth birthday. I never felt compelled to write before that. My other great joy is being a watercolor dog portrait artist. I love to capture the love shared between the dog and their owner through portraiture. I am totally committed to God and to my sobriety. My prayer is to give back through these books what was so freely given to me.

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Copyright © 2016 Heidi Heath Garwood.

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Used by permission. NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® and NIV® are registered trademarks of Biblica, Inc. Use of either trademark for the offering of goods or services requires the prior written consent of Biblica US, Inc.

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