So, in the new spirit of trying to stay connected, and keep a sense of continuity going, I thought I would share that it’s my AA birthday today. I’ve now been sober for twenty-eight years. Strange.
I have to say that it hasn’t really sunk in, but then I have spent the morning out doing my once-fortnightly grocery shopping in my local market town, Retford, and everything has been rather frantic. I’ve just spent nearly forty-five minutes playing at taking photos to add one to this post (again, another new thing I’m trying to do to shake things up).
I guess it’s rather apt to be changing things on this day, a celebration both of all the changes that have gone before in order for me to get to this point (the major one being stopping drinking all those years ago, without which none of this could be happening now), and of the days to come. But I haven’t really had time to reflect and celebrate, to be perfectly honest, but then I never really do, ‘cos I don’t actually know how to do it, so they generally pass by without much notice.
And I have to say that with time, clichéd as it might sound, the quantity of years stops meaning anything, and what becomes more important is the quality of sobriety and the life I lead. So I guess that’s something to reflect on - not just thinking about where I came from, but whether I am where I want to be; and, if not, what needs to change, and what I can, and want, to change.
I was going to share a potted (ha ha) history of my drinking and recovery, but I don’t really have the time now. Maybe some other day.
But for now, to all of you who are trudging this path of recovery, I wish you happiness, joy, and freedom: and faith in your own conception of a Higher Power, who will do for you what you cannot do for yourself.
Namaste - “I bow to the Divine within you”
