Some people living in life one day at a time discover if they live their lives without extending grace they will end up being self-righteous resentful people. Some of us who live our lives in one day at a time recovery understand this and in understanding this we come to know that we have lost all claims to self-righteousness the moment we declared ourselves to be addicts. The more we hold onto our self-righteousness the more resentful we will become. Our fears, our uncertainties, and our need for control in all honesty reveal to us our claims to moral and spiritual superiority are nothing but the created fallacy of an egocentric delusional reality. At some point in our recovery this happens to all of us. We had to think this way to feel safe. It helped us deal with our fear of being or becoming weak. When we mature in recovery we accept it and in doing so we learn the gift of extending grace not only to ourselves but to others as well. We need to be vigilant. Some of us don’t live long enough to experience it. Bitterness is poison. We need to extend grace to get past it. Peace.
The reality of being people who are living in one day at a time recovery is sometimes we are people who are walking with broken legs. We limp and hobble along knowing that full-well that if we do not reach out for support we could very easily fall flat on our face causing serious harm to ourselves. After we have fallen enough we come to the realization maybe, just maybe, it’s okay to ask for help. Very often we find help in places we never thought we would. Somehow, someway, someone knows what to do and recognizing we are walking with broken legs they either become a temporary crutch to help us once again navigate the reality of recovery one day at a time or they show us where to get the help we need. And when we heal a bit we help others who are walking with broken legs. To receive and to give. One day at a time recovery teaches us this empathetic reality. Peace.
People living in one day at a time recovery know the reality of rising peace. We have experienced this through our experiences of acceptance, courage, and the wee bits of wisdom we have gathered and tried to hold onto during our one day at a time living. The hopeless have become hopeful and in this we find rising peace. As we live in constant vigilance in the reality of abstinence, we grow a bit at a time from the experience, strength, and hope given to and shared with us by other recovering people. We get what they are saying and we are doing what they are doing which is living in recovery one day at a time. They have shown us even the difficult is doable and in as such we continue living in rising peace. It’s our reality which is living in continual grace. Peace.
Those of us who live in one day at a time recovery eventually understand that there is hope for the hopeless. Discovering our need to be in complete control or our need for complete certainty reveals to us how little power we have over much of life. We eventually understand that the only reason we found recovery was because our situation existed in the reality of hopelessness. We discover through an incredible amount of given grace God, the spirit, or the universe flung us into one day at a time recovery as imperfect and as uncertain as recovery might be. The more hopeless that we were the more hope we did find. It’s the reality of Pandora’s box. Hope was and is our saving grace. It’s a gift. Peace.
People living in one day at a time recovery know the reality of being diamonds in the rough. If we are living in a humble reality we really don’t have much of a problem accepting this because we know that every diamond was at some time nothing more than a chunk of coal. Becoming and being diamonds in the rough is more than good enough for most of us. We know that it is the grace of God, the spirit, or the universe that has transformed us and we are humble enough to always remember this. Our intrinsic value is that we have always had intrinsic value. Our past is our greatest teacher. It brought us into one day at a time recovery. We know our reality. Peace.
What many of us who live in one day at a time recovery eventually learn is that we need to have a little less fire in our recovery and we need to share a lot more love. We are not the be all and end all to people caught in the struggles of active addiction but when the fire of recovery is strong within us we write our books, do our talks, proclaim our proclamations, and aim our sails towards our own personal salvation endeavors. We might even be so foolish as to believe that our lives have been unsoiled to point that we are role-models for others to lean on but in time reality sits in. We’re just people who need love and love always takes work. The fire will cool and we will accept this. It’s a universal truth. We become kinder, gentler people. Peace.
Many people living in one day at a time recovery are people who have an understanding of generosity in regards to extending a helping hand to those in need. We will roll up our sleeves and help a friend stack firewood or we will volunteer at a local soup kitchen to feed the less fortunate. We will listen to the old-timer tell the same story over and over again in the rooms of recovery and we will listen to the new-comer’s dreams of wanting to save all the addicts and at the same time save the world too. In addition to this we will make peace with our own imperfections and in doing so make peace with the imperfections of others. Generosity in regards to extending empathy and compassion helps us to understand our inextricable connection with others. It makes the world a better place. Peace.
Many people living in one day at a time recovery choose to live a life of recovery once they have found one day at a time abstinence for a while. Most of the time we find abstinence because deep down inside of us there was a desperation and a loneliness so great and so horrible that we had no choice but to stop using. We bottomed out. When we stopped using we were stepping out of hell and entering a world of the living. Most of us needed a safe place to do so. With a bit of time in abstinence we found we had to stop the con if we wanted live doable and manageable lives. In doing as such we found we had to live reasonable lives and stop playing in places where we once used. Many of us substituted the rooms of recovery for our using places and in doing so we developed the ability to choose one day at a time recovery and the freedom that goes with it. Do we have a choice? We do after we are abstinent long enough to be comfortable with the reality of living in our own skin. Many of us understand this. 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 people living in one day at a time recovery know what it is like when our reality is that on some days we just get by. We are grateful for these day because such days are the days we grow through the numbness and the normalness of life. Without the gratitude for being alive such days are the days that some of us have relapsed back into active addiction. We really don’t know why such normal days bring us to the reality of relapse but our reality is that we sometimes appear lost on such days. Our greatest reality is to become the normal and to be the reality of a person living in one day at a time recovery. Living in recovery is not just something that we find. It is the reality of us living in recovery each and every day. We need to adapt. Peace.