Those of us living in one day at a time recovery know that there are many things we have to do in our lives to navigate the realities of wellness and freedom which we find one day at a time. Two of such things we need are for our journey to be built upon both reaching out for help when we need to and trying to help others in order that they too might find their own wellness and freedom one day at a time. Both undertakings are good and right. Such endeavors are not really a pursuit of righteousness. We are simply doing what recovering people do which is seeking the realities of wellness and freedom. Reaching out for help from others and becoming a person who can help others is the reality of being capable of receiving and giving grace. This is the foundation of wellness and freedom found in living one day at a time. This is a huge step. Many of us believe that such journeys makes God, the spirit, or the universe smile. Us too. Peace.
Many of us living in one day at a time recovery understand what it is like to be choosing self-control. Those of us who choose self-control might actually be those of us who are exercising the wisdom of others. We are those of us who know we need to one day at a time remain abstinent from our addictions because if we do not, we lose freedom of choice. What we need to understand is exercising freedom of choice is not the same as having the ability to exercise free will. Exercising freedom of choice can keep us healthy and give us somewhat control over ourselves, and our decisions. Exercising free will can be so confusing that we feel the need to control others, and we can become unhealthy, paranoid, and misled individuals. We might even make our own laws full of dangerous rulings and spiteful traditions. Such is the maker of ill-will towards others. When we choose to remain abstinent in one day at a time recovery we are choosing love. Love for ourselves and love for others. This is an very old tradition. We no longer need to live on self-will running amuck. Peace.
One of the realities of being a person living in recovery is living ever so vigilantly extending grace to others and ourselves in the present. We learn to do so because we are people who have learned to extend grace to others, and we have also learned to give grace to ourselves in regards to our past. If we feel we should refuse to give grace to others or to ourselves we might experience a fear so great that inside we actually tremble. We feel it is a bitter and resentful person that does not become the bearer of grace. What we understand is people living with any life experience are people who give grace. Giving grace is an ongoing endeavor to others and also to ourselves in the present because we need to join our kinships in love. It’s a God thing. Peace.
Many people living in one day at a time recovery understand the reality of being caught up in self. To some of us this is the reality of self-obsession or what is known as self-obsessive thinking. It is difficult for us to really understand this when it is happening. It stems from the workings and the passions of the self. It can be the reality of me, mine, we, and ours. This happens and can be a part of living that we find difficult to be aware of. Most of the time we are living in a sub-conscience acceptance of self because it is the on-living nature of people prone to addictive thinking and behaviors. Even life in recovery feels its affects. It is remedied by the acknowledgement of you and yours and giving purposeful consideration to the other. Such consideration is born out of the power of the other. With it comes the awareness of the reality of our inextricable connection between me and you, and us and them. Especially when you and them are close to us. In doing so we see the face of the other in all people. Especially in those we love. It is an ongoing reality. Peace.
Many people living in one day at a time recovery who have been around recovery for a long time continue working at it daily because they know to stay healthy they have to continue to do so. We might even say that we are still trying to figure it out. What some of us are figuring is we live a day at a time and we live one day at a time recovery because many of us don’t consider ourselves recovered. Even those who say that they are recovered still continue practicing one day at a time recovery. We seem to have a common goal which is we want to be healthy, stay healthy, and continue on being healthy. Another part of our common goal is we don’t want to fall back into active addiction so we practice abstinence on a daily basis. Some of us know the reality of relapse even after being in recovery for a long time. Most of us fear the idea of a chemically induced relapse but fear alone doesn’t insure good health. In regards to living healthy we have to keep working at it. Meetings, prayer, medication (for some), reaching out, and giving back. This is a recipe for a healthy life. Enjoy it. It’s all a gift. Peace.
Those of us who live in one day at a time recovery believe we serve others, or shall we say share the realities of recovery with others, in order that they might reap the benefits of our service, and perhaps live reasonable, and happy lives. We who serve others in such a way are in all reality servants to those who are seeking recovery. Such service might be considered a humble endeavor. When we were young in recovery we believed we would become teachers like those who we might have considered ourselves to be learning from. The experience we acquired became lessons for ourselves and when we became humble enough to share our experiences in recovery with others we discovered it was not we who became teachers but it was our one day at a time living and a whole hodgepodge of learned knowledge that became the teacher. We realized that while being in service to others we were actually gaining what little control we could have over our lives. It was then that we learned that being of service to others was a far greater service to ourselves than it was to anyone else. We have discovered the paradox of service. It is an absolute truth. It is also a gift. Peace.
Those of us living in one day at a time recovery often see that we are living a life of unwavering reality. This unwavering reality is that we are human beings. We are human beings who live in a life of constant change but in all reality no matter how much things change we will always need the reality of human connection, human concern, and human companionship. Another constant is we need to experience love from the other. If we do not know who or what the other is, it is our reality of God, the spirit, the energy, or the universe in whom we are inextricably connected with all things and with all people. We learn we are a part of and not a part from. Many will be greater than us but we will be less than none. Perhaps this is the reality of divine love or perhaps it is just an unwavering reality which in its reality ask us to show love, mercy, compassion, and grace to those we share our lives or our beings with. Reality never wavers. It’s a gift.
Often those of us who live in one day at a time recovery who reach out to share our experiences and limited knowledge of navigating life in regards to living with mental health disorders and addiction know perhaps one thing and perhaps one thing only. What we know is we are living reasonable and reasonably happy lives as we navigate the reality of the wilderness. With every step that we take we know and understand that we have been marking our trails as guide posts for others, and as we venture about we will find that others who entered the wilderness before us will mark their trails leading to small villages where those who have came before us have set up have set up homes in which we are welcomed to visit, gain and share experience and knowledge in order that we can experience the true reality of grace found in the wild. We were told that not only did we mark our trails for others, we marked our trails so that we could find our way back out of the wild should we become lost. Those living in villages told us that going back out of the wilderness is important. We all need to do this at times. It’s part of our journey. The wilderness has taught us that we are inextricably connected to the other. Though we might not know why, we do need to go back out of the wild. We sometimes think we are doing this to live in synchronicity with the oneness of the other. We are starting to experience the reality of giving grace to ourselves. We are allowed to come out the wild and no longer be students or teachers. We become people. What else would we be?
One of the realities of living in one day at a time recovery is sometimes it rains. Our hope is that even though the rain falls things will still remain fundamentally okay. When there is too much rain we might think that this really sucks. We would do well to remember that just because the rain might suck it doesn’t mean that life sucks. We need to remember this and also realize that we can sometimes be inclined to think that everything is all or nothing. Life is not always that way. In reality, it seldom is. We might even choose to put on some rain gear and go for a walk in the rain. It helps. Peace.
The reality of being a person living in one day at a time recovery is that there are periods of our lives when we can live as people experiencing a frustrating aloneness. Such aloneness can happen to people living with mental health disorders and addictions. Even though we know that we live with an inextricable connection to other recovering people, and we know that we get to experience wellness, in all reality frustrating aloneness will shred away at the reality of our connection with what we get to understand as the other. It is a self-perpetuating disorder that reinforces the frustration of aloneness perpetuating the illusion of the aloneness of the self. Frustrating aloneness is one of the reoccurring adversities of living with any mental health disorder. Some of us wonder if our propensity to become addicts is our attempt to cope with our pains, our frustrations, and our already conceived aloneness. Some of us experience that living in one day at a time recovery makes life doable. We learn to reach out. Our views change. Our feelings of aloneness become our connection with others. We get to experience the reality of freedom and freedom of choice. We get to experience a reality in which we get to thrive and be happy. Reality becomes a gift. Peace.