Thanks August, I certainly understand what you mean. Lest I give the wrong impression, it has not been all rainbows and unicorns frolicking in a meadow for me. I started this thread to help me remember the "positives" that I'm discovering along the way to recovery. It's a resource I'm stocking up to use against those times when the struggles are at their worst.
Honestly, over the many (MANY) times I've tried to quit before, I've realized that my greatest danger for relapse is not those times when I've had a hard day or had emotional turmoil. Rather, I tend to relapse without thinking much about it at all. It's like my brain goes on autopilot, and my hand grabs the bottle without much forethought. In the past few weeks I've used this thread (and SR in general) as a resource to go to when I find my hand reaching towards the bottle, to remind me of the positives that I'd be throwing away because of my mindless actions.
Also, although SR is full of tales of inspiration and perseverance, there's also a lot of despair here. I was hoping that this thread could provide a little bit of balance to that by focusing on some of the positive. (I've since discovered the 24 hour thread, which is a wellspring of positivity!). Again, by no means do I intend to minimize the fact of the real struggles we're all going through on our paths to recovery, nor do I think one should ignore the grim reality of what addiction has done to ourselves and the people around us.
Hopefully this makes sense.