It’s another Grateful Heart Monday, which means another day to practice expressing gratitude from my life, something I believe is key to living a spiritual life, which for today is for making 26 years of sobriety from alcohol, drugs, and cigarettes on June 11.
I know each year I’ve written a gratitude article surrounding this when I’ve reached this date again clean from these former addictions, but in light of how much this pandemic affected me, as well as the long suffering I’ve gone through with chronic pain and health issues, the fact that I’ve remained clean and sober from these three things still is absolutely, 100% something I want to express gratitude for.
Ironically, while I have felt many urges over the past year since my last sober date to splurge on other various worldly things, I haven’t felt any compulsion or obsession to pick up alcohol, to take any drugs, or puff any cigarette. Honestly, I tend to believe that’s a miracle given some of the days where my mindset has been over the past year of craziness.
I heard a statistic not too long ago that 40 percent of people who were clean and sober from some former addiction before entering the pandemic, relapsed during it. I personally can attest to knowing several, some with long-standing sobriety, who went back out and re-delved into their former addictions. I’m thankful I can say I’m not one of them in regards to alcohol, drugs, and cigarettes, three things that I continue to repeat year after year in this blog that they almost once destroyed my life on far too many levels.
So, yes, I’m absolutely grateful to have another year of sobriety under my belt from the terrible three that once controlled every part of me and I give all that gratitude to my Higher Power, to God, who has helped me one day at a time to keep going, even when my mind hasn’t wanted to, on countless days. For this, I’m truly blessed and so very thankful!
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson
