September is recovery month and I’ve seen posts with clean dates flooding my Facebook feed. I thought this would be a good time to end my hiatus and blog again. Writing about my recovery has always served me and with my anniversary coming up at the end of September I’m in the mood for reflection.
Recovery has given me so many gifts. The other day while sitting at dinner it came up that the first time my Dad had Shake Shack was on a visit to my old apartment in DC. What he didn’t detail in the memory was that he was down in Washington on a whirlwind trip, packing up my apartment after another failed attempt at sobriety left me in rehab with my family picking up the pieces. It’s hard to think about those days, I said, and he responded saying it’s important to focus on how far I’ve come since.
I have to marvel at how far I’ve come since that DC apartment. It’s funny, the little things I measured as success, like that glamorous apartment, turned out to mean less than I thought they would. Today I live with my Dad, and while I can’t boast my own apartment as a sign of living well, I also know too well that having an apartment doesn’t mean you’re making it. Some of my darkest days of my drinking took place in my fabulous Tyson’s Corner apartment, where I isolated from the world and curled up in fear of ever having to face reality.
Today I live in recovery, and that means actually living life. I wake up every day sober and grateful to be alive. Gone are the days of waking up hungover and feeling around for the next drink on my bed stand. Today I live free from addiction and every day is more glorious than the last. This doesn’t mean that every day is perfect, life is life and this whole adulting thing is a trip. But sober life is an opportunity I’m eternally grateful for.
My clean date is September 25th, 2020. God willing at the end of this month I will celebrate three years sober.
September is recovery month and I’m posting this in hopes that those of you in recovery will post your recovery date to show others it’s possible. Let the world know we are here and it’s time to make big changes.