Clean and Sober reminders and keepsakes. From one Fellow to another
From the inspiring word of Thich Nhat Hanh, renowned Zen master… We can start our day with the happiness of a smile and the aspiration to dedicate ourselves to the path of love and understanding. Waking up this morning I smile. Twenty-four brand new hours are before me I wow to live fully in each moment and to look at all beings with eyes of compassion.
Read MoreI am honored to be have been selected to be the official jewelry designer for the Circle of Sister upcoming convention on March 15, 16 and 17, 2013 “Stepping into the Circle of Recovery”. My designs will be featured at this event. This is my all-first all-women Narcotics Anonymous Convention and I am thrilled to be part of it. Thank for considering my artwork.
Read MoreIn my last blog post, I talked about how wrong I was in my belief that Stephen King’s Misery was about the artist trapped in the horror-genre. After reading his book, On Writing-A Memoir of the Craft, it turns out that he was writing about being trapped and crippled by drugs and alcohol. So much for my years of literary interpretation I learned at school! This has opened up my eyes and I now wonder how many other novels or short shorts are about addiction and alcoholism masked in metaphors. …
Read MoreWhat could be more frightening than the prospect of relapsing? A friend of mine just relapsed and although he’s back in recovery and has been clean for about 9 months, he relapsed long and hard for about 2 years. What he said to me was very poignant and I wanted to share this with you. He said that within the first week he started using again, he was back to the same amount of substance and using it with the same frequency as he had over 10 years ago. Scary isn’t it…
Read MoreWhen I think about sobriety and all the wonderful gifts it brought me, I can only thank my lucky stars that I’m still clean. I try not to remember the past with bitterness in my heart because it really only causes pain and it is negative. Sure, it’s easy to say when I was using, I was so this or so that..and, at first when you are finally sober, you need to recall how you used to be. God knows how many ambitious or worthwhile projects never got done because I was just too stoned. Guilt can…
Read MoreI think most of us addicts/alcoholics know a thing or two about boredom. In fact, I know that one of the many reasons I used in the past was because I was bored. It was like, I’m bored, I can’t concentrate on anything right now so I’ll get high. Boredom became this monkey on my back that led me to using more and more. After I cleaned up, I had to still deal with boredom and it was not easy finding things to do that required my full attention. Luckily,…
Read MoreSerenity isn’t just about the 12 steps. It’s about coping with life. This last year has been a real roller coaster for me. I had some successes and I also had some health problems that frightened me so much that it made me even sicker. The Serenity Prayer became my mantra and I began to pray hard and often when the fear took over. We often think this prayer is just for folks in recovery but really, so many people have turned to it in difficult times. I am inspired by my aunt, Colette,…
Read MoreThis is the first time I write a blog and honestly don’t know what I”m doing. So here goes… I’ve been clean for 6 years now and although I appreciate sobriety, it’s been quite a journey. As most of us in recovery know by now that after you pass the “honeymoon” phase of your sobriety, the little problems and bigger problems in life still come and go. The only difference is, that being sober, you have to cope for real without any “help” from your habit. It was hard at first for…
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