“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” – Ferris Bueller from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

I can see clearly now. 
I can feel life now. 
I know my name. 
I know where I am. 
I know who I am.

Sober. One second. One hour. One day at a time.

“Everything is extraordinarily clear. I see the whole landscape before me. I see my hands, my feet, my toes, and I smell the rich river mud. I feel a great sense of strangeness and wonder at being alive.”

The Buddha (c.563-460 BCE)- According to “1,001 Meditations” by Mike George

September 11, 2011-September 11, 2025.
730 weeks and 4 days. 5114 days. 122,736 hours. 
7,364,160 minutes. 441,849,600 seconds.

10 things you’ll actually love about being Sober

“At the end of the day, we can endure much more than we think we can.” — Frida Kahlo

Relief. Freedom. Sober.
When I focus on this moment, 
Not on yesterday's broken stupors, 
Lost moments, 
Despairing moments, 
Moments of torn promises, 
And 
Fractured relationships. 

Seconds, 
Minutes, 
Hours awake 
When I should have been sleeping, 
Dreaming of blue skies, 
Fresh breezes, 
The smell of coconut, jasmine, 
And 
honeydew
It’s all good now—just normal life.

Sober. One second. One hour. One day at a time.

“Love the life you live. Live the life you love.” – Bob Marley

Behind me
Faded memories
They are slipping further away each day. 

Not entirely gone, 
And 
I’m okay with that
It’s a reminder of why I can’t go back—
That life isn’t the one I want to return to
Painful memories that jolt my mind into the present. 

The time left behind. The time wasted.

Somewhere
Between the horrors of drug addiction 
And 
Alcoholism, 
I managed to catch my breath long enough 
To see hope on the horizon—
That all of this 
Is of my own making, 
And 
I am preventing my path 
To that hope.

Drinking and snorting my way into a deep hole 
More than six feet
I woke up on September 11, 2011
And 
Knew it was over. 

I just wanted to write clearly, 
The clear lens of a sober mind.

There would not be any romanticizing 
Of drunkenness 
Or addiction 
As the writer's fate. 

I am no Charles Bukowski 
(I met him once at a Omelet and Waffle joint)
Ernest Hemingway
Or 
Hunter S. Thompson. 

There were no lightning bolts, 
Angelic voices, 
Or 
Visions from a fourth-dimensional spirit. 

There was no Twilight Zone moment of realization
The surprise ending 
It’s when you find yourself somewhere you don’t want to be. 

I was exactly 
Where I wanted to be
Free
Tired 
But still free
Just like that.

It took me long enough. That’s okay. Since then, I’ve had plenty of time to explore the darkness left behind and the light I’ve found. To unleash the insight and the words that flow like a river right through the center of my life. 

I'm floating along with it. Laid back. Relaxed. It’s all becoming clearer—Every day.

It speaks to me 
In the silence of my morning ritual
At five o’clock in the morning,
Reading my books about wisdom,
Peace, 
And 
Meditation. 

I write, 
Spilling my guts—
Vomiting all the hurt, 
Pain, 
Distrust, 
And 
Darkness (even after all these years) 
As they cling to the deepest recesses of my mind. 

It sticks to me like Velcro that’s been glued together, 
Like a bad joke. 

That’s okay. I have time. 
It has to go, 
But I’m okay if it takes time
I’ll write it into irrelevance
I’ll crush it with my fingertips, 
Clacking away on my keyboard
Or under the point of my mechanical pencil 
Sliding across the pages of my notebook. 

Just another topic to meditate on. To analyze.

• More Clarity of Thought
• Improved Relationships
• More Time for Self-Care
• Increased Energy
• A Happier Life

“You will face many defeats in life, but never let yourself be defeated.” – Maya Angelou, And Still I Rise

Yes, I have my entire future ahead of me to live 
And 
celebrate how far I’ve come since September 11, 2011. 

The happiness 
And 
Peace 
I share with family 
And 
Friends. 

The end of an eight-year journey 
To earn 
That long-sought-after college diploma
To receive my reward for all those years 
Of study, homework, 
And 
Class lectures—
Grinding away, 
Soaring high, 
Leading to graduation, 
And 
That paper that says 
(invisibly)

You did it! Congratulations.
Yeah, that’s cool.

10 things you’ll actually love about being Sober

“Wherever you go, there you are.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn’s 1994 book Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life.

Writing of the past for the future 
In the present
I am blasting away 
At the hard edges 
To smooth them out. 

Look at it as sort of an exorcism
That’s what being sober 
Has come to mean for me. 

I am confronting my weaknesses 
And 
Mistakes (as painful as it is)
And 
Showing the world a newer version of myself, 
Ready to embrace the best parts of humanity. 

Yeah, that’s cool.

I open my eyes 
And 
See so much more clearly, 
A vision before me 
That I never thought I would see. 

The one I only heard about in therapy sessions, 
Phoenix House encounters, 
From recovering addicts 
And 
Alcoholics. 

Peace. Inner peace. Quiet redemption.
I got this.

• More Clarity of Thought
• Improved Relationships
• More Time for Self-Care
• Increased Energy
• A Happier Life

Sober. One second. One hour. One day at a time.