Getting Started

In August 2010, a friend asked me a pointed question.  We were a little more than a week into an 11-day backpacking expedition.  I had hurt my knee, and, that particular day, the trip was no fun at all.  In my self-pity, I asserted that hiking out with the bad knee was the hardest thing I had ever done.  My friend's question: "What about getting sober?"

Self-pity deflated, I knew that getting sober should be the toughest thing I had done.  I wanted it to be right.  It was really close.  It wasn't quite.  And I began to think.

Ten months later, in a very quiet moment, the right answer made its appearance.  The hardest thing I had ever done was to begin the process: to go from knowledge--from understanding that I had to stop drinking-- to execution.

Of course, what was holding me back was knowing that getting sober meant that everything would change, and I had absolutely no idea what that meant.  I could imagine what an alcohol-free life would look like.  I saw no friends.  I saw loneliness.  Mostly, I saw a huge emptiness and felt the fear.


Honestly, the web was no help.  I saw lots of links to AA-influenced sites, but they offered little insight as to how someone like me could manage, let alone thrive, in the early struggle to stay sober.  I found nothing that would give me any idea of what I could expect to feel, to experience.


So, I'm trying to fill a void here, a perceived need.  But just like getting sober, I'm not going to be doing this alone.  I'll describe my experiences, and I'll be posting the stories of others, as well.  There will be posts from ex-drunks, addicts, people with sex addiction issues.  


The stories will reflect the perspectives of those from different faiths, as well.  In my experience, faith has a critical factor in my recovery.  I am a Catholic, and that should be clear in some of my posts.  Even so, I recognize that your mileage may vary.  I hope to post stories from people with widely varying perspectives.


Nonetheless, I believe that faith, expressed as it may be, is the key.  A writer, an "ex-drunk" as she describes herself, recently posted on her blog something she had overheard: "Faith isn't leaping from Point A to Point B. It's leaping from Point A."


Amen.