The Re-set Button

What I love about the 12 Steps program is also the "One day at a time" slogan.  When I first came in I really didn't believe I'd be able to quit the addictive behavior.  I'd been doing it for so long.  But Charity, my sponsor, encouraged me to just stay focused on a day at a time.  "Most people put their pants on by using one leg at a time otherwise they'd fall.", she said. A friend, Nancy, uses the concept of a "re-set button" to start her day. I love the visual of this.  "One day at a time" helps me ground, to start a fresh new day by morning meditation and prayer, writing and reading recovery literature.  Same thing.  For the grace of my Higher Power, the 12 Steps program and the fellowship, I've learned how to re-set my day.  Before, it's like I used to live one continuous day on and on, never-ending.

In early sobriety, I remember how amazed and awed I felt by the multiple epiphanies I experienced.  It was like a new world.  Like I'd been living on a different planet that required artificial air support, a spacesuit and space shoes...the alcoholic world is bleary, same old/same old, lifeless, a dark, living death.  Wow.  In sobriety the air smelled sweeter, the grass greener and the earth sparkled.  It gave me just enough hope to keep coming back.  One day at a time, sometimes a minute at a time and I keep coming back.  It's 19 years later and I still keep coming back.  I may not work this program perfectly and most definitely will never be the posture person of recovery...GOD-willing, I hope and pray to stay in this program until the day I die.  When I quit drinking I grieved and mourned as if my best friend had died.  Well, in sobriety I now have a bunch of new friends, a worldwide fellowship, and the very best friend of all...my Higher Power that I choose to call GOD.   I am truly grateful.