There is so much written on sobriety and recovery that it might be redundant to say anything at all. Still, there are a few things that must be stressed if one is considering the journey. I will add them from time to time as I think of them and I’m able to articulate them. Knowledge and language aren’t always aligned in this huge head of mine.

Firstly, the gift of sobriety is sobriety itself. What does that mean? It means that your life isn’t automatically going to change. What does sober even mean? It means not being intoxicated for one. It also applies to the ability to reason more clearly if you choose to and work at it. It’s not going to fix everything that you’ve broken. You have to do that work. Sobriety will clear the path for you to do that.

Secondly, sobriety doesnt automatically make you a better person. It makes you a sober person. You may not find yourself becoming the person you always wanted to be, or the person you worked at being, or the person you always expected you were. It can but may not lead you on a path that makes you become better and very different than you imagined yourself to be. Sobriety and a recovery structured around working on yourself can lead you to a more authentic version of yourself and a you that you may not have known existed. The old timers will call it a version of you as God intended you to be. I can’t speak to God or Higher Powers. I can speak to the probability of self-knowledge and change.

You will hear that nothing changes until something changes. That’s the recovery axiom to hold close. You are going to have to work to feel better. You may not yet recognize this authentic version of you. Ten years on and I’m still familiarizing myself with this guy I didn’t know. He is…

New.