Work
Thinking today about work. The good, real work of one's life.
There are certainly other "lucky" people who haven't had to suffer with our struggles and losses and pain. There's "lucky" people who coast on the surface of life, and envy them I often do.
But there's something to be said for those of us who have had and who have to work at sobriety. Because no matter what, that's what it is - work.
But work is good. Work is honest. It gives you clarity. It makes you sleepy and tired in ways that however many milliliters of your favorite poison never let you. Work makes you stronger. It connects you with the earth, with your loved ones, with your self. Work calcifies old wounds you've let fester for years. Work breaks open parts of your soul you left to fallow for years. And this kind of work can create in you what is maybe the most human, the most valuable of qualities one can esteem to have - empathy.
And it's hard. But it's good work. And hard, good work is all we can hope for.
"A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials." - Seneca