Yeah... but I don't wanna GIVE IT UP!!!
Member
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Sussex UK
Posts: 112
Thanks FreeOwl
Thank you so much for this post!!
Originally Posted by FreeOwl 
The further I get away from my last drink and the more I embrace the goodness of sobriety, the more one thing stands out; how deeply we resist and fight against what we perceive we are 'giving up'.
I have found my curiosity deepening - both in observing myself and also in others I see all around me. Not just alcoholics but indeed anyone who drinks with any regularity.
In my children, I see pure and simple joy every single day. Their experience of life need not be numbed or enhanced. They are energetic and loving and enthusiastic and curious and they soak up life all around them. They express and they laugh and they interact and socialize and they explore and create and they sing and they love.
Very few of the adults I know are genuinely like this. Even fewer of the adults I know choose not to drink alcohol.
What general sickness of the human condition is it that so many of us - alcoholics and 'normals' alike - feel that in order to live life we need to ingest a mind-altering toxin
What societal condition is this? What insanity of a species?
In sobriety I am re-discovering joy for joy's sake. The emotions I experience - both good and bad - are pure and genuine. Like my children, I am able to laugh and to sing and to explore and create and love and I don't need to cloud my true self with a haze in order to do it.
If you're new and struggling to get sober, if you feel like you're somehow 'losing out' by choosing sobriety - I just wanted to urge you to try and spend a few minutes every day thinking about it from a totally different angle.
If a child can laugh with carefree abandon, do her chores with pleasant focus, create a gift and give it to another person for the pure satisfaction of sharing that gift and bringing someone a smile - why the hell do we think that as adults we are somehow 'missing out' by choosing to numb and mask and distort all that simple wonder that is present in our true nature????
If you're a newcomer or even if this is your thousandth time trying - I want to encourage you to think about what you give up every time you drink. I want to encourage you to think about what cherished wonders you receive when you choose sobriety.
I want to encourage you to listen deep to the child in you and to realize that by quitting drinking you are not giving up.... you are returning.
I have found my curiosity deepening - both in observing myself and also in others I see all around me. Not just alcoholics but indeed anyone who drinks with any regularity.
In my children, I see pure and simple joy every single day. Their experience of life need not be numbed or enhanced. They are energetic and loving and enthusiastic and curious and they soak up life all around them. They express and they laugh and they interact and socialize and they explore and create and they sing and they love.
Very few of the adults I know are genuinely like this. Even fewer of the adults I know choose not to drink alcohol.
What general sickness of the human condition is it that so many of us - alcoholics and 'normals' alike - feel that in order to live life we need to ingest a mind-altering toxin
What societal condition is this? What insanity of a species?
In sobriety I am re-discovering joy for joy's sake. The emotions I experience - both good and bad - are pure and genuine. Like my children, I am able to laugh and to sing and to explore and create and love and I don't need to cloud my true self with a haze in order to do it.
If you're new and struggling to get sober, if you feel like you're somehow 'losing out' by choosing sobriety - I just wanted to urge you to try and spend a few minutes every day thinking about it from a totally different angle.
If a child can laugh with carefree abandon, do her chores with pleasant focus, create a gift and give it to another person for the pure satisfaction of sharing that gift and bringing someone a smile - why the hell do we think that as adults we are somehow 'missing out' by choosing to numb and mask and distort all that simple wonder that is present in our true nature????
If you're a newcomer or even if this is your thousandth time trying - I want to encourage you to think about what you give up every time you drink. I want to encourage you to think about what cherished wonders you receive when you choose sobriety.
I want to encourage you to listen deep to the child in you and to realize that by quitting drinking you are not giving up.... you are returning.
Member
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: Mediterranean
Posts: 187
I needed to read this tonight. I have been searching all evening for something and really feel this post has hit the spot. I identify even more so as my 2 are very young and bring me so much joy. I love how you have worded this and made my brain think tonight. Alcohol is a toxin and it makes no sense to me that I have regularly been poisoning myself all these years. Thank you again for posting. I don;t know the site well enough, but this needs to be pinned for inspiration/motivation! xx
Member
Join Date: Jan 2015
Posts: 251
Nice read. I love the fact that I "gave up" mood altering substances, hangovers, guilt, the inability to drive after having a few.... It's all forward from here. If I want a malt beverage I'll have one sans alcohol. If I want to get into my car and grab dinner I will. The freedom from alcohol is one sweet reward for "giving up"
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 8,637
I'm up this morning at 0530 excitedly preparing for my daughter's first downhill ski race.
I've been teaching them both since they were four and three, respectively. This year is my right year olds first season on the team and her first race today. When they ski, they are joyful and filled with glee. When I am skiing with them, it is one of the greatest feelings of joy ever... Watching them grow and evolve and have courage and mold their skills with each new run.
I'm so grateful to have this kind of powerful, joyful experience. To be up excitedly preparing for her first race, clear headed and rested -
Instead of hungover and anxiously scrambling.
Today I am fully present in these moments - for myself and for them. I'm so grateful to have that in my life. To have returned to myself and to my loved ones and to my community.
Sobriety is a gift, not a loss.
I've been teaching them both since they were four and three, respectively. This year is my right year olds first season on the team and her first race today. When they ski, they are joyful and filled with glee. When I am skiing with them, it is one of the greatest feelings of joy ever... Watching them grow and evolve and have courage and mold their skills with each new run.
I'm so grateful to have this kind of powerful, joyful experience. To be up excitedly preparing for her first race, clear headed and rested -
Instead of hungover and anxiously scrambling.
Today I am fully present in these moments - for myself and for them. I'm so grateful to have that in my life. To have returned to myself and to my loved ones and to my community.
Sobriety is a gift, not a loss.
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