To meet the peaceful, deeply spiritual Gordon Palmer, one would never guess the long, painful road to recovery he has traveled to become the man he is today. His past unfolds like a TV movie with scenes of living in an old school bus, cutting wood by lanterns in the middle of the night, and jumping up and down in a courtroom, shouting about Communist plots. Most of the stories involve his use of drugs and alcohol.

In 1996, two friends insisted Gordon get help. “I was set to get into a drug and alcohol center but hadn’t yet made a bed date. At one point, I was in front of a judge and he asked why, in four months, I’d not yet checked myself in. I told him I didn’t have a chance to because they kept locking me up!” Finally, Gordon’s two friends packed his bags and got him into Kitsap Recovery Center, a drug and alcohol treatment program. “I did 31 months between inpatient and outpatient treatment. Now I go back to KRC and share my stories of how important it is to remain in recovery.”

Before treatment, Gordon was reclusive. Treatment included pushing him into being part of, not apart from things. Now, after eight years of being clean, he is anything but reclusive. He is active in several recovery programs and his life is now about helping others. The focus of his life is spiritual and he is deeply involved with Medicine Wheel, a Native American spiritual group.

With a gentle smile, Gordon explains, “We are all related ­ to the trees, the earth and the air. We are all related. I used to be rude, crude and socially unacceptable. That just isn’t who I am today. I would rather walk away than treat someone that way or be treated rudely. That’s what spirituality is about.”