We Are All Our Stories

A big part of recovery is being able to tell your story in a way that conveys both how you got to the day you decided this is it - I’m done. And what it has looked like since then. I am a story teller myself, bred from some ultimate story tellers. I had not been able to see my addiction & recovery story as anything but something really embarrassing that happened to me… until I understood what recovery meant. For most of us it has to start with sobriety. With a reckoning of where we have found ourselves in relation to the substance we have been relying on to get us through whatever we felt like we needed help with. Recovery is getting that support in a new way. That’s why meetings are so helpful. Instead of going to the bar, sitting alone & drinking or whatever your program of use was it gives you something to do. It fills time so that you don’t use. It’s a pin prick of light on days when you can only feel the crush of addiction’s dark pull. It is watching other people grow and change when you know what they lived through in their own story of addiction and recovery. It is the spark of hope when you see others reach milestones that seem so out of reach for yourself. It is being so inspired by other people’s stories of recovery & resilience that you want your story to have that same happy ending. It is also realizing that there is no end when you are in recovery. Instead, it is a deepening of your ability to open your heart to the experience of acceptance, love and vulnerability. There are so many words that I could use to convey my gratitude for sharing in other people’s recovery stories and this is what shines through... Awe.