keithj

I became truly grateful after a spiritual awakening as the result of the 12 Steps. I know, I sound like a broken record on here, but it's the truth of my experience.

Up until that time in my life, I could have a mental list of great things in my life I should be thankful for. But that's all it was. A mental list. If you had asked me, I would have said I was grateful for those things. But I never really felt it at a heart level until after the Steps. Then I knew what real gratitude really was. That feeling has remained to this day, and I'm frequently overcome with the deep humility of being blessed beyond anything I earned.

For me, the pertinent question is not when can you expect this, but rather are you actually in recovery? Or are you just not drinking? Recovery, which I define as on a path to being recovered, does not happen just by not drinking.

There is a world of difference between the two, in my experience of living both ways.