I'm forcing some paperwhites. The bulbs are sitting in a bowl filled with rocks and water. The surprising instructions for these bulbs say that when the green shoot is 1 to 2 inches tall, pour off the water and replace it with a solution of 5% alcohol. You can use isopropyl alcohol or hard liquor. Wine and beer have too many sugars.The result is that the leaves are half as tall as usual, while the flowers are the same size.
This is what alcohol does to us as well: it stunts our personal growth. We may feel more lively and fun with some alcohol in our system, but in fact, we are stunting our real liveliness; we are stunting our life. While we look the same to everyone around us, and even to ourselves, alcohol is slowly, invisibly killing our innards.
For my alcoholic mother, it was her liver and the nerves in her feet. For some, it's diabetes. For others, it's high blood pressure, fibrillation, or other heart disease. For others, it's pancreatitis and diarrhea.
Drinking more than 1 or 2 glasses of wine a day is death on the installment plan.
1st drink--The woman takes a drink.
2nd drink--The drink takes a drink.
3rd drink--The drink takes the woman.
May you bloom as beautifully as your paperwhites.
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