Many people living in one day at a time recovery understand the reality of life being a careful celebration. The old adage of let down your hair, be free, and get wasted is no longer a pursuit of ours. We know this from the wreckage we caused during our days of living in active addiction. Today our celebrations are careful and free events where we let down our hair but we do not get wasted. How do we do this? We remain abstinent by choosing to not pick up that first one. In other words we do not use. Most of us choose to avoid gathering with people who are consuming. It’s our reality. It is safer to celebrate with people who are not using. It just is. We know this from experience. We know life is a careful celebration that brings freedom and we know freedom is a wonderful gift. This is our truest reality. Peace.
Many people living in one day at a time recovery often subscribe to the understanding that our home is our reality. Not only is it our reality it is our welcomed reality. It is a haven where we break bread with our families. It is where we entertain ourselves with our TVs, our radios, our computers, and it has rooms where we create, craft, or sing. It is where we raise our children and it is our safe place. It is a place we pray. To simply put it it is where we recover and remain abstinent from active addiction. It is a place of love. To have such shelter, such comfort, such joy fully completes the reality of grace. When we have it we know how lucky we are. Peace.
Many people living in one day at a time recovery understand the reality of being touched by the Divine. Many of us believe that if our beliefs of the Divine are founded from religion we are in fact hypocrites. In reality what we are doing is being the pot calling the kettle black. Spiritual people understand that most people living in recovery have no right to such judgement and that we gave up such notions when we declared ourselves to be addicts. We are not judges; we are kin. What we discover is the divine has many ways of touching us. When we begin to understand one day at a time recovery we understand we are touched by grace. What grace does for one it will do for another. It usually begins with the gift of desperation. We must never forget this reality. We’re all touched by the divine. Peace.
Some of us living in one day at a time recovery know what it is like for us to live in a world where we’ll weep. It is the nature of soft-hearted people. People who could not come to terms with the reality that we lived impaired lives with little regards for the wellness of those who were closest to us. When we first find abstinence it is a good chance the flood gates will open full force. In our fear and in our remorse we find out just how tough we really are. We’re like kittens facing a pack of hungry wolves. Our emotions chew us up, spit us out and tell us that we best not run with the wolves. We seek refuge in the arms of our loved ones, detox centers, and hospitals in which we find new beginnings. In such realities and in such desperation we understand we need not face life on our own. Some say our tears help in the cleansing of our souls. Today we know that it’s okay to weep. It all part of living in one day at a time recovery. We are no longer alone. We’ve found grace. Peace.
Most people living in one day at a time recovery understand that togetherness means a lot. If we understand the meaning of spiritual wellness we understand two things which are we love together and we recover together. Without love and without a togetherness recovery is not a one day at a time journey. What we discover is life becomes an egoic undertaking of delusional importance because we believe ourselves to be above others. Besides that aloneness becomes a lonely place. We know this because many of us have tried the alone road. Today we know togetherness and in that togetherness we know togetherness means a lot. In togetherness we find grace. Together we can find recovery in an inextricable bond of humility, hope, and freedom which comes to us one day at a time. It becomes the beginning of joy. Peace.
Some times people living in one day at a time recovery understand when it is time to abandon the sinking ship. Regardless of how we feel, regardless of how much our beliefs are unimportant to others we do know one thing which is even when we are right our resentments can become sanctimonious endeavors which cause discord and pain guided by nothing but unconcern. Where others can let things go, we sometimes cannot. Should we choose to let a resentment go but we cannot we need to remind ourselves we are on a sinking ship which is going sink whether or not we go down with it or jump into the safety of a life boat. It’s part of living in one day at a time recovery. We call it grace. It’s for everyone. Peace.
Many people living in one day at a time recovery realize that as we venture on our individual paths in recovery we are actually walking with the other. Most of us who visit the the rooms of recovery learned early on in our journey that we didn’t have to walk this road alone. We soon discovered that funny little coincidences like unexpected invites to join others for coffee would happen on days when all was difficult. It even helped us to remain abstinent for one more day. What we began to see was that God, the spirit, or the universe was actually working through others. In reality we started to realize we were walking with the other in an inextricable way. One day at a time recovery became a living miracle for us. Our early desperation became a gift for which we are grateful. Now we walk in grace. Peace.
Many people living in one day at a time recovery know everyday brings hope. We don’t have to feel, experience, or absolutely understand how we have hope. It’s not a matter of faith, trust, good deeds, or anything that we have done that merits us this reality. There is hope everyday because of pain, sickness, death, and tragedy. It is because chains, terror, cruelty, and ill will supersede any act of decency or kindness. It is because want gets twisted into greed, addiction, and to the very least obsessive want. It’s because life gets so selfish we don’t even care enough to share the air that we breathe or the water that we drink. It’s because we wage war with our neighbors because we want what they have or they are a threat to our sanctimonious belief of ourselves, our God, and our society. Everyday we awaken we know this pain, this wrong, and this truth. We shed the tears, we heave the sighs, we sob the sobs, and we know the dark deep days of depression. But still we sing, we smile, we work, we laugh, and we can be exceedingly grateful. People marry or form unions of togetherness. Kindness and charity is a part of our lives. Children are born and they sing their funny rhymes. And even poets can smile. What else could we do but believe their is hope everyday. Hope is because it has to be. It’s a kin to love. There is no other reality.
Many of us who are living in one day at a time recovery know what it is like to be the powerful and the humble. In days we were the powerful our thinking was egocentric and a bit delusional. We told ourselves that we could control our using and stop all by ourselves any time that we really wanted to contrary to the reality of having no control whatsoever. When we bottomed out we came to an understanding of desperation that we needed help. We became humble and reached out for help and we found it either at a detox center or a hospital. In doing so we learned a valuable lesson that many of us, after years of recovery, still use. This lesson is alone I can’t but together we can. We practice this in the rooms of recovery. Still humble, we help each other. Now we know. Peace.
Many of us living in one day at a time recovery understand that we want a simple life. We realize that although most of us have spiritual experiences such as we know there is a God and that we are not him, her, they or it. We come to believe that our lives are not moment after moment moments of epiphanies and spiritual superiority but we realize through God’s grace and compassion we have become recovering people who share an inextricable bond with each other. Most of us don’t learn this overnight. The gift of desperation made it so we could understand and with this understanding we develop a want for a simple life or what we can call one day at a time recovery. It’s that simple. Recovery is a gift. It’s a lesson in humility. We will never know how profound this truly is. Peace.