When an Anniversary is a Birthday
Today is the first day of the rest of your life.
That sentence sums up my day 15 years ago, April 2, 1993. It was my first day of sobriety after years of alcohol abuse. I didn't know at the time that I would not drink again. Actually, when I realized, after attending meetings for a week, that the rest of the folks at the meetings didn't drink AT ALL, I was pretty alarmed and aggravated.
I asked someone at a meeting, "you mean to tell me that I can't ever drink AGAIN?". God bless him...his answer was, "just don't drink today, and go to a meeting, and then don't drink between meetings".
Well, I have done just that. I have not drank, even when I wanted to. I have gone through my first marriage falling apart, my mother dying of cancer, a falling out with my family, a move to another city, a new relationship, a severe back injury, cervical cancer, a career change, another career change and life.
I did not pick up a bottle during all of that. I prayed a lot, I talked to my friends and my brother, Chris, I journaled, I cried, I took walks and baths, and drank lots of big glasses of cold water! One of my friends in that first year advised me, "when you really crave a beer, drink one or two glasses of ice water and it will really take away that craving because chance are you are just thirsty!" She was right!, I still do all of these things and now I also talk to my husband, Jeff. He has never known seen me drunk and I pray he never does. I am sober.
I am blessed and know it. I am grateful to my husband, my family, my friends, my animals, the incredible community in which I live, my beautiful home, my work, the clubs/volunteer groups to which I belong, the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous and the freedom to practice my own spiritual beliefs. I am alive and am happy. I never dreamed life could be this good.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Today is my 15th A.A birthday and it feels like the first day of the rest of my life.
That sentence sums up my day 15 years ago, April 2, 1993. It was my first day of sobriety after years of alcohol abuse. I didn't know at the time that I would not drink again. Actually, when I realized, after attending meetings for a week, that the rest of the folks at the meetings didn't drink AT ALL, I was pretty alarmed and aggravated.
I asked someone at a meeting, "you mean to tell me that I can't ever drink AGAIN?". God bless him...his answer was, "just don't drink today, and go to a meeting, and then don't drink between meetings".
Well, I have done just that. I have not drank, even when I wanted to. I have gone through my first marriage falling apart, my mother dying of cancer, a falling out with my family, a move to another city, a new relationship, a severe back injury, cervical cancer, a career change, another career change and life.
I did not pick up a bottle during all of that. I prayed a lot, I talked to my friends and my brother, Chris, I journaled, I cried, I took walks and baths, and drank lots of big glasses of cold water! One of my friends in that first year advised me, "when you really crave a beer, drink one or two glasses of ice water and it will really take away that craving because chance are you are just thirsty!" She was right!, I still do all of these things and now I also talk to my husband, Jeff. He has never known seen me drunk and I pray he never does. I am sober.
I am blessed and know it. I am grateful to my husband, my family, my friends, my animals, the incredible community in which I live, my beautiful home, my work, the clubs/volunteer groups to which I belong, the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous and the freedom to practice my own spiritual beliefs. I am alive and am happy. I never dreamed life could be this good.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Today is my 15th A.A birthday and it feels like the first day of the rest of my life.
Labels: AA, Alcoholics Anonymous, cravings, Sobriety
posted by Chicken Mama at 12:53 AM
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