Stepping Stones

Daily Gratitude List - August 14th, 2023

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I am so grateful to be sober today. I am grateful for a warm morning and time outside. I’m grateful for rest, celebrating a friend, my sober life and coffee. I’m grateful for my plants, my connection with HP and for being present and surrounded by so much love.  

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Good morning my friends!

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend and was able to relax, even if just for a little :)

This weekend absolutely flew by (and I’ll definitely be paying for it this week), one of our closest friends celebrated 10 years yesterday! It’s so funny because when I had 30 days, 90 seemed so far away, when I had 90 days, one year seemed like it was an eternity. Now with a year and a half 10 whole years seems unfathomable.

As part one of our celebration, we went to Stepping Stones up in Bedford Hills which for anyone who doesn’t know, Stepping Stones is the home of Bill and Lois Willison. Do you ever go and visit a historical place and it’s hard to wrap your head around the fact that these people were actually here, this was really their space and really their things?

We sat at the table where Ebby first told Bill there is another way, we stood in the room where 30+ alcoholics would do Séances with Bill, we sat at the literal desk that Bill wrote the Big Book and 12 & 12 and Grapevine stories on….we saw the desk where Lois (the co-founder of Al-Anon) sat, their bedroom and tiny little bathrooms and learned about all of the little alcoholic projects Bill would take on like making a boomerang because his grandfather (I believe it was his grandfather don’t quote me) said he wouldn’t be able to.  

It was really wonderful, somethings I already knew but to stand in their home is something beyond words and I would encourage every alcoholic to visit. And in celebration of someone’s 10 years!!

Yesterday we naturally threw a surprise party (beginners tip – don’t tell a group of drunks about a surprise weeks in advance because we’re really bad at keeping secrets as sober people…) and overall there was just so much love and joy and pride and happiness. On the toughest days it can certainly be hard to remember why we do what we do, why we tirelessly work to stay sober and to me – this is why. I am a part of, there are people who I love so much, and they love me right back. We have support and community and celebrate each other’s triumphs and hold each other up when we need it too.

It's the most beautiful thing to me. It will always be worth it to me. This life I have now is so beautiful and it’s really only just beginning, all I have to do to keep it is not drink.

Xx

Jane