“Whatever can happen at any time can happen today.” --Seneca (Pt. 2)

Last week, I attempted to tackle the more morbid aspect of Seneca’s above quotation in terms of the negative things that can happen to us can strike at random, without warning, at any time.  How do we cope with that?  How do we live with the proverbial sword of Damocles hanging over our heads?  Well, read that post if you want because I’m moving on.  

I want to write about the aspirational aspect of sobriety.  I want you to be inspired.  I want you to be ready to run through a wall and yell at the top of your lungs that you are taking your life back.  Because you can.

“Whatever can happen at any time can happen today.”  What if the thing that happens was your realization of the life you could be living in sobriety?  What if the thing that happens is the miracle of joyful recovery?  What if the thing that happens is you realizing you are more than enough to stand up to the challenge of living your life without reliance on substances?  That day can be today.  Here’s the thing:  you have agency in this.  You can make today that day.  Why delay?  

A good time without a hangover.  Falling asleep versus passing out.  Remembering the night out you had with friends.  Repairing a friendship.  Making amends to a loved one.  Taking a deep breath outside and letting the wind run over your skin and through your hair.  These things are waiting for you.  They are the gifts that are available for all of us in sobriety to claim as rewards for the decision to start making better decisions for ourselves.

Very few of us get sober because things are going well in addiction.  We often come to the decision to seek sobriety because the alternative is no alternative at all.  So, we start from a place of being totally defeated and downtrodden, that’s somewhat inherent to the situation in which we find ourselves.  But, things can improve remarkably quickly from there.  So don’t wait!

I interact with a number of people on various platforms and people tend to always have a reason they aren’t ready to commit to sobriety.  There’s a vacation coming up and they don’t know if they’d enjoy it sober.  Or, a family get-together.  Or, some holiday or another.  Here’s the thing, Dear Reader:  that’s life.  There is always going to be some event, occasion, or reason for you to put off making this change.  Do not let that get in your way.  Don’t delay your recovery from addiction waiting for the perfect opportunity to get sober.  It could be that there’s really no such thing as the perfect time to get sober but I look at it from a different point of view:  Any time is the right time to get sober.  The right time to get sober is now.

There is simply no reason to continue along a road you know ends in misery because you’re afraid to turn around.  Don’t do it.  Don’t flush any more of your time, energy, and life into your addiction.  Reclaim yourself and your life and start living it free from the servitude you’ve created to your addiction.  Will it be painful?  Yes.  Physically, mentally, and spiritually, it will be difficult.  But, compare that pain to the pain of addiction.  Both of them are going to be painful.  Only one of the two options has any kind of promise of redemption attached.  

So, what if today was the first time you watched a sporting event sober?  What if today was the first time you got a soda instead of an alcoholic beverage out with friends?  What if today was the day you told a loved one you need some help?  Why do we addicts remember our sober dates?  Most of us don’t memorize them because we are remembering our last time drinking or using.  We regard that date as sacred because that’s the date we took charge of our lives again to really live.  That’s why we regard them as sobriety birthdays—we’ve been re-born into a beautiful world that absolutely will accept us as who and what we are.  There is a place for the sober version of you in this world.  You will fit into it perfectly if you allow yourself to re-discover who you are.  To realize your inherent value as a person and also for the wonderful things you can do, see, and feel in your new life of sobriety.  Claim it.  It’s yours.