I have a stark reminder of time by listening to the battery-operated clock on my wall. It was the last treasure that I kept when my last parent died. When in solitude, the tick, tick, tick, tick, reminds me of him, remembering that I was sitting in the chair in his room while he was preparing to transition.
The ticking clock is a reminder that time waits for no one. I want to utilize my time wisely. In other words, it does me no good to wander in the past wishing and thinking that “what if” only I would have done this or that. No. All I have is today.
So when I get in a place of morbidly wondering about the future, I revisit the phrases that have enlightened and strengthened me in so many ways. Here are a few heard over the years:
- I am here for a purpose
- My serenity depends upon my belief system
- Live to spread love
- Growth is intentional
- Suffering is optional, but the pain is not
- Life is inevitable
- Fear is the only enemy I will ever face—the only thing I have to fear is fear itself
- Alcohol is undefeated
- My best math is to calculate the future cost of current decisions
- Anger is a mask that fear wears
- The good that I am hoping for is already mine
- There is nothing so wrong a drink won’t make worse
- Never forget to check my motives
- Preventive medicine is attending recovery meetings regularly
- Move a muscle, change a thought
- It’s lonely at the top, and if I make it there, I sure hope my feet are on the bottom
- Grow or die = god
- Hearing other people’s experiences = HOPE
- Yet = you’re eligible too
- Get off drugs = god
- Great outdoors = god
- Good orderly direction = god
- Don’t stop at the salad bar because recovery offers an entire buffet
- Intersectional addict
- Necessity journaling
- Sanity is living in harmony with reality
- If I want to trip, get into reality
- I have been living in a pandemic for a very long time, with alcoholics and drug addicts dying
- Recovery is a class of higher learning
- I get to choose my conception of a higher power
- Time waits for no one—it’s always too soon to quit