Labor Day Weekend is here—and though few school districts now save their “first days” for the week after, we still see this as the opening of the fall season. Traditionally, Labor Day was the last day for sporting ladies’ white shoes before closeting them until the following summer. Now, we anticipate an imminent sales surge…
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Houston had enough flooding last spring to give anyone chronic ombrophobia (fear of rain). While the high waters have long since receded, periodic “flash flood watches” continue—as do nervous glances at the afternoon sky. Will we relapse into fear of rain? The Storms of Life Are Out to Get Me “At least Houston doesn’t have…
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A major key to finding freedom from chemical dependency is to avoid emphasizing “freedom from” at the expense of “freedom to.” Many people fail to stay clean because, on the subconscious level at least, they think that giving up drugs also means giving up stress relief, enjoyment, or other good-in-themselves things that they’ve come to…
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A key element of recovery is being open about your struggles, temptations, and doubts. Another key element is mixing that openness with a level of discretion. You can share yourself, but be careful how you do that. You’ve probably met people who seem addicted to bragging about their faults: within ten minutes of meeting them,…
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“Sometimes there is equal or more ability in knowing how to use good advice than there is in giving it.” –Francois de La Rochefoucauld After months of dealing with substance abuse and recovery, you may be up to your ears in sobriety advice. When you still didn’t want to hear it, everyone advised you to…
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Anyone coming out of substance abuse has extensive experience with disagreement. You disagreed with friends who told you you were overdoing it. You disagreed with authorities who said recreational drugs were bad for everyone. You disagreed with your own conscience when you “borrowed” to finance your habit. You disagreed with your better judgment and insisted…
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The quote “With great power must come great responsibility” may have originated as recently as the twentieth century, though many attribute it to the eighteenth-century philosopher Voltaire. Long before that, Jesus said, “Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required; and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask…
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Independence Day may be over for another year, but celebrating freedom is something worth doing daily. More valuable even than political freedom is freedom of the soul: Celebrating freedom to know what’s right and do it. Just about everyone who makes it into substance-abuse recovery has sworn many times, “I’ll never do that again,” only…
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The first known person to use the “eternal vigilance” quote—in that wording—was Wendell Phillips, speaking to the Massachusetts Antislavery Society in 1852. It follows that vigilance in sobriety follows the same vein as the quotes below. The sentiment is at least as old as the Founding Fathers: “They that can give up essential liberty to…
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