On quality of life and socializing sober Friday, an early get-together before the actual get-together. I know no one. But unreserved hugs all around, and laughter. The most beautiful summer afternoon has slipped into this space of early autumn. It is the kind of day that makes Norwegians split open at their tightly sewn seams….
All the quit lit I read during my first two years of sobriety The first few months and years of sobriety can feel like an expanse of empty time. Because we aren’t hobbling out of a bar or having that third mimosa with Sunday brunch, space is freed up for other things. This leaves many…
Without ruin, there’s no space for restoration and growth. For me, nature is poetry. Similar to the words that rhythmically flow off a page evoking deep emotions, the natural world can have such a profound impact on me. Both allow me to view the human experience through a different lens. When I read a poem…
When a frightening truth becomes a beautiful promise I remind myself it took me twelve years to get sober. Alcohol first laid its claim on my mind at age fourteen, as I was smiling drunkenly at myself in the bathroom mirror at a house party. Drugs arrived at seventeen, when alcohol became more enemy than…
Perfectionism and people pleasing can be perilous to sobriety. “She’s so amazing.” “I don’t know how she does it!” “What a rock star!” I have known a lot of amazing women. I bet you have, too. I bet you may even be one of those amazing women. In a previous version of myself, I was a stay-at-home…
Looking in the mirror, I know I can be trusted. That first August in North Carolina, we heard the inland Raleigh area where we’d moved rarely saw danger. We would simply see a lot of water. But, people would freak out. Bread and milk would disappear from the stores. Power might flicker. It might be advisable to…
Sober but still grieving, angry, and seeking serenity. Struggling to find a higher power, I stumbled into a Buddhist practice that offered both discipline and a refuge. While living part-time in an authentic Buddhist monastery in the Catskills, I found a way to forgive myself and accept the past and the promises of a sober…
Creative expression helped me learn to feel and find freedom. Relapse is not a requirement. I remember hearing that clear as day in my first meeting in January 2018. That was going to me: I was going to be a first-time winner. Today, six-plus years since that January, it has been a roller coaster that…
“Just as meditation practice depends on a limitless, ceaseless trust in ourselves, so too does our recovery.” This series showcases conversations with experts who are sober themselves and working in the recovery space. Today’s edition features Taishin Michael Augustin, a Soto Zen Buddhist Priest in the Phoenix Cloud lineage of Kobun Chino Otogawa, Roshi. Taishin Michael…
How to overcome challenges and receive life-changing rewards I had a love affair with alcohol for 20 years. I drank 6 or 7 days a week—not always to the point of blacking out, but there were stacks of those fuzzy nights in my career. I was a functioning alcoholic, as the oxymoron goes. Alcohol was…