Happy Tuesday Thought
As one of my sponsee’s is great at reminding me “Happiness is not having what you want. It is wanting what you have.”
Recovery
Still Alive, Still sober
Long neglected this little site, been away doing some of that “normal living” AA is a bridge to.
Still alive, still sober and loved up in a new relationship.
Life doesn’t get much better than this….
another day at a time
I’d count the hours between drinks, then in sobriety I started counting the days since my sobriety date. I never thought I’d last 30 days in rehab, then I never thought I’d last the first week out of rehab, but a day at a time and a meeting every day I did.
My little Sobriety Calculator now puts me just over the 2750 day mark, a day at a time. I only comment this minor personal milestone as I would never have thought it would have been possible and I’m grateful I got to see the second half of my twenties and am rapidly progressing through the first few years of my 30’s. (Does time get quicker the older you get?)
None of it would have been possible without the love I have and continue to be shown in the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Happy New Year and Now is a Time to be careful.
Happy New Year to the Internet and Recovery peeps, this must have been the quietest Christmas Holiday I’ve ever had and I must say that the break has been much needed. Contrast that to last years Christmas Ghana trip, for my brothers wedding, it has certainly been less eventful and far colder but good all the same.
Passing on a message that was given me in my early days which was to be careful post holiday period. Particularly after my first few Christmases in recovery I found, having had my defences up against the excesses of the period around me, January was quite a comedown. There also seems a higher than normal rate of relapse after Christmas, so I will, as usual, up my meetings for a bit and get back into a regular routine.
Keep Safe and Happy.
Recovery Rocks
Considering I landed up in AA just to stop the pain and fear that ruled my life in active adiction, recovery just continues to amaze with those things that are truly beyond any of my wildest dreams.
It’s seen me zooming around Manhatten in a helicopter, eating lobster under Sydney Harbour bridge and seeing elephants in the wild in Ghana.
Yesterday I had the joy of floating over the Sussex English coutryside in a Hotair balloon. Such stillness and peace flying with the wind thousands of feet high.
AA sites
I’ve always kept an lazy eye on the AA/recovery related sites out there particually those in the UK. The Electronic Communications Team at GSO is York have been doing some great work on the official UK AA site adding some great stuff for both the public but also members of the Fellowship, including forums/doc repositories and even an online shop for conference approved material.
The advent of addicts blogging recovery still leaves me unsure as to whether it’s a good thing or not to be bearing fragile souls to the internet, that’s not just a recovery thing though rather the nature of blogging, but there are some really great recovery blogs out there.
Check out sober chick who’s gratitude for recovery and life is a good reminder to me of its importance when my head is disapearing up my arse.
Phils Recovery Shed has evolved into a great unofficial UK AA site, with an emphasis on Fellowship/Community, Phil has done a supurb job of putting together a very slick recovery site with a growing Forum at its heart with over 80 members.
Well that didn’t work & Happy Birthday Mark H
After 3 1/2 weeks off the fags a weekend back on em after a minor car crash set me off smoking again, justified in my addictive head as a way to control the anger and self pity, thank god no one was hurt and the thought of a drink is far away in moments like that today. Reset the smoking clock and back to 24hrs,
Happy 5th birthday to Mark H, top night Saturday celebrating and a visit my first ever Drag Cabaret at Rubyz in the court of Dame Kitty Glitter, an hilarious evenings entertainment.
And as a minor aside “Total Eclipse of the Heart” as never seen before, especially love that drumming.
19 days of the fags
Wow, the worst part (the first two weeks) are over. Really is a miserable experience giving up the Marlboro Reds I’ve smoked at 30ish per day for the past 13 years. 3rd attempt at it, and hopefully third time lucky, first time I managed 8 weeks a two years ago, a pathetic 8 days last year. Last year didn’t really count as I had a crazy idea I’d still smoke cigars after meals, funny how controlled smoking didn’t work either…..
Well still got my nicotine patch on, so not given up the drug quite yet, but at least the grumpy constant suppressed anger has started to subside after this little period. Seven years 5 days off the drink and 19 days off the cigarettes, a day at a time, still not giving up caffeine anytime soon tho.
As an aside thought I’d test drive the new Firefox beta (Bon Echo) as the ebuild just landed masked in Gentoo portage. Seems the “must have” new feature to justify the upgrade from 1.5 is the inline spell checking in text boxes as you type in the web browser, it’s an absolute god send for my crapness at spelling.