The River Is Waiting

by Wally Lamb

When you’re an active alcoholic, you give up everything for one thing. But when you commit to sobriety, you give up one thing for everything.

Maybe that spirit is speaking to me through the sound of moving water. And maybe that sound is telling me to trust that not everything is stuck and stagnant—that forward movement is possible. That by the time I’ve done my three years here, the sun will come up and light the path that leads me back to my wife and daughter.

Sometimes I think we’re all wandering in the dark and that it’s random and pointless. But I’m trying to open my mind to the possibility of some deeper truths. Trying to see the light and move in that direction.

One thing about having to come to prison: it gives you twenty-twenty vision about who wins and who loses in the good old USA.

Having hope is kind of like praying. Like asking God for something and hoping He’ll hear you. But if you have an expectation, it’s more like a demand than a prayer. Like you’re saying, here’s what I expect, God, so make it happen for me. See? Like you’re the one who gets to give the orders.”