The Most Beautiful Mother’s Day Gift

You won’t be surprised to learn that I usually get a lot more orders for my jewelry just before Mothers’ Day.

But, here’s the twist: only a few of those extra orders are for my Mothers’ Day hearts engraved with their children’s names. The bulk of the extra orders are for my regular 12-step recovery jewelry items that celebrate sobriety anniversaries, another year of being clean and sober.

That’s right: many people finally choose to get sober on Mothers’ Day! Surprising? That’s actually the most beautiful and meaningful Mothers’ Day present anybody could ever give or receive. Maybe sobriety is the gift a mother gives herself and her family, or maybe it’s the gift someone gives to the mother in their life (as well as to themselves). Maybe both. Either way, it’s a enormous gift.

The program tells us that sobriety is something you do for yourself, but the fact is that staying sober takes every possible motivation, reason and excuse you can find. It’s hard to do something purely for yourself when self-loathing is part of the problem. In my case, not hurting my loved ones anymore was and remains a big motivation to stay clean. It’s one of several, but it’s made a big difference for me. The same goes for a lot of people I’ve spoken to.

I hear from many heart-broken family members of addicts and alcoholics who want to encourage their loved ones’ sobriety. That’s actually the hardest part of my job: hearing how about ripple effects of addiction tears up loved ones emotionally. Mothers and grandmothers are somehow the most heartbreaking of all – I can’t express depths of their sorrow and despair.

If you’ve been thinking that you and your family’s life is out of control because you use drugs or alcohol, may I gently plant an idea in your mind? This coming Mothers’ Day (or sooner) would be a particularly great occasion to give yourself and the mother(s) in your life the gift of your sobriety. Do it for yourself and do it for mom!