I set off fairly late last night to go see my friend Tiger, she is in charge of the house I’m sitting down in the heart of Chelsea, well nearly the heart. Tiger is a grand old Cat. She is regal and when we had a chat over her breakfast yesterday her regal qualities were to the fore. Lying there on the carpet, like a Sphinx, she dipped her head over the edge of the bowl and ate her chicken and munched slowly. As long as I kept my distance all was well, a step too near and a hiss of disdain was issued.

So on my way. A cool evening and the streets are busy with holiday people exploring London’s late night haunts. Bars and coffee houses, off to clubs, off to dinner all nice and posh, coming out of theatres and singing into the air, as jolly old London is balmy tonight.

Stepping off the bus, “Don!” a voice shouts from the dark, its my friend Mark I’ve not seen a while. We are talking as if no time has passed about the world and the day and news we have missed. As if nothing has changed since we spoke months ago. That’s the fellowship at work InChelsea, my local village. It is on reflection a wonderful thing to be here and there in the day, and sauntering along in a city of millions and find fellows are everywhere when things are working and things go wrong. A network so wide we never seem lost, there is always someone to talk to and relate to when we need it most.

And not surprising as early in the day, while out shopping I bumped into Bill who went out of his way to chat and share time as if nothing has happened and I saw him last, when was it, a mere week ago as if no time has passed. Its extraordinary these days to walk InChelsea streets and know its most likely a fellow I’ll meet. This big old town so lonely for years, now teams with like minded people, who are all like me and we are all peers.

I do wonder sometimes when I joined this weird crew about our anonymity so key to our lot, how it would work out. I suppose when I realised my game was up and could never go back to drinking again, to join with a fellowship where we get on with life, and stop hiding away from everything with strife. I never signed up to knowing so many who just get on with life as hard as it can be, and give up running from every mystery. Its now years in recovering and coming up to two since I last slipped back into madness where nothing ever works. And what can I tell anyone about times so harsh, no one would ever wish to live like I did back then. Except maybe the tens of thousands who have made it their life, never to drink a drop a day at a time. Habits are formed they come and go, some to the good and some we might leave behind if our minds can let go. InChelsea where every vice lives with us, and every opportunity to slip, there are thousands who don’t because we have a grip on how to let go. We let go of obsession and every problem known to man, not always forever for we know all too well, its just a day at a time which works if we work it, and we can focus that long, because we know we are worth it…

And on these anonymous streets where most have no name, I go about my business and get called from nowhere, to meet in anonymity a friend and a fellow, who is exactly like me, making good on our way. We don’t worry about worry, we find to the good, we deal with the awful as best we know how, and keep it right sized as humans can grasp nearly anything and everything as we del with any matter, just simply a day at a time.

No sign of tiger as I leave her house, she’s out doing what cats do, and I head for home. No shouting my name as I travel, in chaos and disturbance as jollity is fragile as late nights wear on. The passer by, just over their limits is having more difficulty dealing with life, I used to be like that and took it too far, I see so clearly as long as I know to keep myself sober, and get on with the show.

InChelsea as everyone knows, nightlife abounds and for those in the know, another life emerges as if out the ashes we redeem our very being from all manner of passion. Diverse as can be, our cosmopolitan city offers every vice known to humanity and makes new ones too, and amidst all this chaos comes strange times indeed as we pass from our madness, to living our dreams. Where joy is experienced as well as our sadness, InChelsea of all places from extremes and poles apart, we need both for reference to make good our days. InChelsea, InChelsea, and anywhere across this vast world, my fellowship and my fellows are moments away, beyond wildest dreams, I used to hear them say, and can see where they are coming from, each and every day.

Anyone reading my words may find them hard to understand unless you too are a fellow of an ever growing band. We drank ourselves mad, and drugged ourselves stupid, and now we don’t bother, as we realise now more fun in this world as we score on the day, remain lucid and human as best as we can, and if when we slip and fall off our wagon, we roll up and get on as quick as we can with getting on with life a day at a time.

It gets easy and hard as time goes by, made practical and far more interesting as fellowship provides, and every single fellow knows to their cost what slippage can do, when its beyond imagination what a friend will help support, getting back to life and face it with courage. I lost my mind across this world, I found my way InChelsea and now the world is mine again. Fellowship InChelsea, the same as anywhere else, works if we work it, and keeps us going as complete human beings forever growing.

I don’t know what others might think, I don’t know I care too much, as its not really my concern, if I can help another to a path which provides a life offering meaning then I have found my way. A small price to pay, for getting my life back when it was ending, and I found my way to this real world and living. Odd for me, I had to find out the hard way, on my own how to fuck up a perfectly good life, with plenty of help I might add from other fucked up people. And then to find completely fucked up and recovering people were the only ones to help me find my way back from beyond the abyss. And realise no one ever makes it on their own, back to life and everything, to the good or bad, it throws our way. Remarkable eh? Even InChelsea, smiles here it could have been anywhere, this was my somewhere.

And with regard to that saying at the beginning, as you might observe I do wander off the point quite often. Its an age thing, an undisciplined thing, a DonInChelsea thing. Who cares, I do, but life is too short a day at a time to bother with perfect. My perfect always imperfect in the ever present, present.

If you enjoy your alcohol and drugs of choice and still make your choices, good luck with it, I prefer my way these days...