"Just as drinking pervades our culture, it diffused into my personality. I grew into my abuse, like the occasional tree you can find on a nature walk, its roots spilling over both sides of a boulder like outspread fingers, in spite of the rock's lack of soil, moisture, and stability. To see it only at the height of its maturity is to wonder: Why build on that?" ~ Koren Zailckas, Smashed

This blog is one of my many recovery efforts to uproot my damaged foundation and cultivate the right conditions for blossoming.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

blissful sober moments

Ah, I've neglected my new and lovely blog for too long.  Why suddenly resume posting?  I was riding the D train over the Manhattan bridge and saw the most spectacular sunset...EVER!  Really, it was breathtaking. It was another of those moments that I would have not been able to fully experience, fully enjoy, had I still been living as an active alcoholic.  Then I wondered, "What else have I recently experienced or accomplished that I would have missed in my pinot-noir-colored days?"  So here's a list for this year so far:  

Ran three half-marathons (two in sub-zero temperatures), taken a flower-box design class, created two blogs, tried out four different therapists, learned to cook with bok choi, finally had a movie date with my husband since we had our son… who is now five, received a great job offer (but declined), helped my husband go back to school for an amazing degree, walked over the brooklyn bridge with a friend, discovered a passion for botanical photography, grieved the loss of my very beloved grandmother, helped a friend with a barnes and noble reading event for her new book, discovered purple basil,  launched a fund-raiser via a marathon for my little cousin who is sick, lost eight pounds, bailed on a meditation teacher training workshop without guilt, filled dozens of journals, ended an unhealthy friendship, took care of an injury (threw out my hip doing a crazy ballet move while home on a sick day), ran 22 miles from brooklyn to central park, spent a day in the city with my three oldest friends and 8 of our kids, decided not to give up sugar, read zillions of books.

So far, so good.