Daily Gratitude List 8.4.22

I’m grateful for quiet time. I’m grateful for yoga. I’m grateful for chances to re-center myself. I’m grateful I’m almost at the end of this bag of coffee. I’m grateful I had the courage when I needed it. I’m grateful for perspective. I’m grateful for seeing what could be and what was more clearly. I’m grateful to be sober today.

What’s new with me? What’s new with you? There is some exciting news here. Hopefully, you remember Jane of Episode 9 fame:

Breakfast with an Alcoholic: Episode 9

Jane now has seven months of sobriety and she is a whirlwind. She chairs a meeting, has service commitments at two others, she’s in a Big Book Study Group and goes to a lot of meetings. One of the great things about doing this is that I get to meet a lot of really dynamic alcoholics, but Jane’s enthusiasm for the program is especially contagious and that’s why it’s such great news that she is getting more involved in this whole enterprise. Jane already runs the Instagram branch¹ and she’s going to start contributing here and doing some of the interviews for Breakfast with an Alcoholic!

This started with me posting gratitude lists on Twitter and it’s exciting what this is becoming, whatever that is. I think there’s not nearly enough conversation around alcoholism and addiction. I think there is still so much shame and stigma about it and a sense, seriously, that there is some evil spark in us that made us do all of those terrible things and live those chaotic lives.² All of those attitudes end up costing the lives of alcoholics and addicts. I hoped that the podcast could be a set of approachable, casual conversations about what it’s like to be an alcoholic, how people managed to get help and how they stay sober.

I think it’s still way too hard to find the way into AA or whatever treatment will help. I think it takes an awful lot to walk into that first AA meeting and sadly, it just will never happen for the majority of the people who suffer from this disease. I think everything we can do to make AA more accessible is a good thing.³ That brings me back to Jane. Jane walked down the steps to the 79th Street Workshop alone on a dark January night and I have literally a ton of respect for the courage that took. She’s got seven months of sobriety now and I know what that took, too. That’s why I’m excited to add her perspective and her story here.

The other organizing principle over here is that sharing our stories is what helps others find the path out. Jane’s story is already helping a lot of other people, and, most importantly, sharing it helps her stay sober. You can probably tell that I’m excited and I am, because the more voices here, the better and Jane will add an interesting and fresh perspective and point of view here. Anyway, stay tuned for more on that and, of course, the much-anticipated Liner Notes for Episode 19.⁴

Thanks for Letting Me Share

1. Yes, we’re on Instagram!

2. Well, there was kind of an evil spark, in my case it was called alcohol.

3. Bill W. did, too: “Each group has but one primary purpose—to carry its message to the alcoholic who still suffers.”

4. Seriously, I am very excited for Episode XX, partly because I know we can’t really do that for Episode 30. Yeah, I’ve made that joke before.