Ah, Rumi…your words are an arrow that so often find their target at the center of my heart. These two concepts, Holding On and Letting Go, can be beneficial or brutal, depending on the degree and contents. If we hold on too much, or to the wrong things, we will surely encounter disappointment or pain. Read More
Category: Alcohol Dependence
The Antidote for Wanting
My daughter really wants two things these days: her dad to come home and a Happy Napper. After seven months on a deployment that was supposed to last four, I am thrilled to report my husband is in fact coming home! This Sunday. So yes, Amelia, your daddy will be here soon. The Happy Napper Read More
My Own Outfit
One of the most significant choices we commit to in a life of sobriety is choosing ourselves over “the crowd.” Choosing our own wellbeing over fitting in. In my last few years of drinking, I tried sobriety on like an outfit I thought didn’t suit me. One of the big reasons I felt this way Read More
Holding Patterns
Holding Pattern: 1) The flight path maintained by an aircraft awaiting permission to land. 2) A state of waiting or suspended activity or progress. The world is engaging in different stages of emerging into life again. Some places have their feet still firmly planted in the sand. Others dipping a cautious toe into the water. Read More
Trend-spotting During a Pandemic:
And How Being Sober is an Advantage We are living through unprecedented times. Pandemics aren’t new. Neither are dark times where humanity is tested. But to push a worldwide pause button in this day and age–where advancements in science and technology have brought us so far, so fast, and enable us to do so much Read More
Backsliding into Existence
The tagline for this blog is Choosing to Live Rather than Exist. For me, this distinction means being an active participant in my life instead of going through the motions and passively letting life happen to me. Up until now, this distinction came with my choice to get sober. When I was drinking, I chose Read More
Mindset.
I read a post on Instagram from one of my sober heroines, Carly Benson, that eloquently captured what I know to be true through my own experience. “To quit drinking, you have to change your mind about alcohol and what it means to you.” She goes on to say, “Sustainable sobriety starts in your mind. Read More
Practicing Powerlessness
Wednesday afternoon, my boys came back from their dads. I emerged from my almost-17-year-old’s bedroom to find two towering young men with Nerf guns in my living room. Their fingers moved up to their smiling lips and I registered delight in their eyes. My heart leaped and I let out a small shriek the same Read More
I am Full…of the Wrong Things!
Accountability Announcement: I’m starting Whole30 tomorrow. Creator Melissa Hartwig Urban describes it as “a short-term intervention designed to teach people how the foods they are eating impacts them, and ultimately create their own perfect diet.” It’s an elimination diet, not meant to be permanent, but rather a controlled experiment (with you as the guinea pig) Read More
Goodbye to the Season of my Discontent
Why do we always tend to look toward another time, season, life circumstance to find contentment? When I finish school and start my career… When I can quit my job and raise children… When my kids are older and more independent… When we are kid-free and have extra time… When we retire and have the Read More