“I don't want to go back to the past. I've made good with it. I live differently today, and I am benefiting from living differently.” Glenn H
Trust us, we haven't figured out the meaning of life yet. We will say that we are gaining a better understanding of our role in this thing called living. It's the whole cosmic puzzle that remains baffling to our brains; questions about creation, hate, and war cruise through our cerebrum but we tackle the tackleable.
What’s important is what's important.
Simple logic confirms that we are but the sum of our past. This includes each moment from our first to final perception before reading this word. There is none in the universe like us. We are each born with a very specific deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), and then we bake in backgrounds, beliefs, and the bullies that crossed our path and those elements form our view from the inside.
We are unmatched.
Sobriety has delivered us some degree of clarity. We did not get to this point by happenstance or osmosis but by being intentional in our learnings and actions. We got to where we are by the decisions we made along the way. According to one web source, humans make over 35 thousand decisions daily. We decide based on pain, pleasure, fear, envy, experience, and other key factors we will explore in another post.
Today we make decisions based on our commitment to sobriety.
Our base is as simple as it is strong; we remain constantly reminded that there is nothing more important in our lives than staying sober today. This filter, if you will, binds our behaviors. By simply committing and remaining dedicated to the virtues of 12-step recovery we are afforded better living and a clear conscience.
It is not that we want less alcohol but that we want more of what the sober lifestyle has to offer that drives our decision not to drink. We have tasted abstinence and it is what we now crave. We have re-pointed our addictive tendency to this new-found process of decision-making. We find ourselves consumed wanting more of the good stuff.
To be clear, life continues to deliver life; Our past decisions come back to haunt us. People get sick and die. Jobs are lost. Relationships are strained. Finances are tight. There is still hate and war in the world. There are turning points where we will be left to make yet another decision. What will we learn, and how will we respond? Will we relapse into our old, undisciplined thought and behavior pattern – or remain steadfast on our life-priority, which is base sobriety?
Where we used to be calls for our return. In the past, masks meant to disguise our feelings were put on as reflex. Decisions were made drunk, and disaster almost always prevailed. Today, we are who we are not because of fate but because we have committed to raw-face the life experience.
We have all this incredible experience, our uniqueness, and the taste of a life in recovery. This is what we guzzle today. This is the bottle we share with anybody interested in a fresh start.
This is our last stance. We don’t have another drunk in us. We absolutely wouldn’t trade what we have for the lie of liquor. Each simple decision declares our direction. For us, we choose to choose sobriety.
Thoughts and ideas for this blog post were taken and built upon from a sober.coffee podcast # 36 titled " Happy Holidays - Sober Tips to Manage Holidays." The session dropped on 12/8/2021….Click here to hear the podcast.
Photo by Zoelle Suo on Unsplash
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Alcoholics Anonymous and AA are registered trademarks of Alcoholics World Service. Inc. References to AA, the 12 steps, and 12 traditions does not mean that AA has reviewed or approved the contents of this publication nor that AA agrees with the views expressed herein. This publication is intended to support personal growth and should not be considered a substitute for healthcare professionals' advice. The author’s advice and viewpoints are their own.
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