Recovery Month

The month of September marks the 21st anniversary of the observance of national recovery month.  Tens of thousands of men, women and families are celebrating recovery from alcohol or drug addictions.

Count me as one of the masses honoring the blessings and benefits of recovery.  I am grateful for a month designated to celebrate and educate Americans about the incredible hope and miracles of recovery.

For those of us who “do the deal,” September is the public month of recovery, while we grind away one day at a time, month after month.  Sometimes it is a grind.  Earlier this week, I blew most of my 30 Days of Presence agreements wide open.  After a confrontational conversation with my significant other, I was forced to painfully admit that a direct correlation exists between my indifference to my meetings and obsessive activity, whether mental or physical.

In this case, my obsessive behavior was like a dog pawing the ground to find the buried bone.  Fast and furious, starting out with hope and excitement.  But when the bone didn’t readily appear, I dug harder, with more intensity and growing frustration. 

Finally, after a dramatic and exhausted metaphorical “I give up,” I was now also angry that I didn’t have my bone and I had a very big hole.

I definitely was not present.  But after the conversation, I was aware enough to admit that I needed to sleep and let everything we discussed percolate then either permeate or dissipate.

I woke the next morning earlier than usual and much to my surprise, reverted back to an old practice of saying, “Good morning, God,” as soon as I opened my eyes.

They say that acceptance is the first step, but if acceptance is not followed by action, it has very little impact.  My action step was to start digging again, but instead of obsessively digging a hole, this time I pawed through papers on my desk to find my meeting schedule. 

Such is the miracle of recovery for me, along with a promise come true:  that I would intuitively know how to handle a situation which used to baffle me.

Happy Recovery Month.  Please share your miracle stories.  For more information about Recovery Month, log on to http://recoverymonth.gov/.

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