Clean and Sober reminders and keepsakes. From one Fellow to another
I’ve been living in Los Angeles for over 20 years and I very much admire and enjoy the local Hispanic culture and language. For years now, I’ve been meaning to offer a Spanish version of the Serenity Prayer to my customers. I believe the Serenity Prayer is beautiful in any language but it is particularly lovely in Spanish. Have a look at my latest Latin edition to the Serenity Prayer family. Muchas Gracias!
Read MoreI received an email from a Gulf War veteran which touched me. I’d like to share it with you: Hi, your work is amazing. I am a recovering addict recently diagnosed with PTSD from the Gulf War….I was just wondering if you are continuing your blog work. I haven’t seen any updates from September. I hope all is well. — Charles Thank you for asking Charles! I haven’t been very well, I’ve been having chronic back pain issues for the last six months. What’s more, I’m not taking any pain…
Read MoreI’m a survivor of many events in my life. I’ve survived addiction, I’ve survived parental alcoholism and I’ve survived a suicide. My brother, may he rest in peace, took his own life 13 years ago this week. I remember the day I got the phone call as clearly as it was yesterday. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon and I was sorting through the laundry when the phone rang. My cousin who rarely called me was on the other line. She told me he committed suicide and then everything changed…
Read MoreI may be clean and sober for nine years now, but alcoholism and addiction is alive and well in my family. I’m sick of it and I want it to go away, but I have to deal with it AGAIN and AGAIN. I want to share a letter I wrote a friend one today: My friend, I know you are angry, confused and hurt right now. I know because I’ve been there. About 10 years ago, my life was a shambles, my marriage was falling apart, I hated everybody and…
Read MoreI went back home to my hometown recently after quite some time to visit my aging mom. Going back home is always an emotional journey for me and although I look forward to visiting, I still can’t help but be filled with some dread about revisiting the place where I grew up and remembering what it was like growing up with alcoholism. It was only a decade ago that I used to visit my parents with plenty of drugs in tow that I managed so foolishly to hide in my…
Read MoreThanksgiving is a special time but for me, it marks another year of sobriety. I now have eight years of continued sobriety. During those years, I have experienced the same disappointments and achievements in life as I always have but the difference is that I was able to handle life on life’s terms– just using my instincts, some common sense and I hope, good judgment. It’s been a tough yet wonderfully liberating experience. One thing that I found a bit of challenge is dealing with friends and family regarding sobriety. …
Read MoreWhen I was using, sometimes I felt like I was living in solitary confinement. My addiction was my incarceration–a lonely, frightening and lifeless jail of my own doing. Now that I’m clean and sober there is a whole dimension of solitude I’ve learned to embrace rather than fear. During my first year of sobriety, dealing with solitude was difficult. Like many others entering recovering, I had to let go of friends who used and using patterns I had developed that were social. Although I had developed other social networks with…
Read MoreIt’s a rainy, foggy day and although I like the rain, today’s rain is reflecting my dark and somber mood. I had all these plans to be productive today but somehow I let my mood take over, simply relenting to the dark side. The problems in life overshadowing my plans, poor me. In my using days, these kinds of days really lent themselves to being stoned. I felt crappy so I got high. It would make me feel better, an instant bliss until it wore off and I’d get high…
Read MoreIt seems not another day goes by that you hear about some famous person going to rehab. In this age of celebrity, being in recovery has almost become fashionable. Mind you, I am not usually into in celebrity gossip but when I hear about “so and so” going into rehab again, I can’t help but take an interest. Maybe it’s because I believe that celebrities in recovery are good publicity for recovery. To most people, stars seem to be these indivduals that are larger than life but when they wind…
Read MoreThe other day while I was at work, (yes, do have a day job as being an artist doesn’t pay all the bills), one of my co-workers made a comment along the lines of, “Why would anyone celebrate being sober?” To that I replied, “For some people who have nearly destroyed their lives with drugs, alcohol or any other addictions, one more year of sobriety is a big freaking deal.” Of course, my co-worker is not in recovery and for people outside the community, the idea of celebrating sobriety seems…
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