Sobriety (off topic or not)?

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happiegrrrl

Trad climber

www.climbaddictdesigns.com

Aug 25, 2013 - 05:06pm PT

OH MY GOD! I totally forgot....My sober anniversary is TOMORROW, August 26th.

Ho man....thanks for reminding me. Wouldn't it have been terrible to completely have forgotten? I can't believe I WOULD have, had it not been for your post. So....today is the 17th anniversary of my last hangover, and tomorrow is 17 years from first day sober.

Thank you for the condolences for Teddy. I put a dog biscuit on the stone at his grave's head, and the next morning it was gone. Maybe there's something about the Chinese tradition of leaving food offerings.... Or maybe a squirrel got it. Either way, it was nice to go visit and have it gone.

Brandon-

climber

The Granite State.

Aug 25, 2013 - 05:14pm PT

Sobriety is an elusive goal for me.

It works for a while, then I get a weekend and I'm all 'Well, I'm going to the liquor store.'

Addiction is a cruel thing. Maybe some of you will say that I should just man up and send it. Well, it's not as easy as that. I hate it, yet I support it.

One of these days I'm going to make it work. I promise.

Props to those of you who have defeated the beast, my battle continues.

S.Leeper

Social climber

somewhere that doesnt have anything over 90'

Aug 25, 2013 - 07:37pm PT

I could not have done it without meetings and a great loving sponsor.It's not about toughing it out.Belief in a higher power(whatever that means to you), has made all the difference to me.

my meeting is tomorrow; can't wait! :-)

Stevee B

Trad climber

Oakland, CA

Aug 25, 2013 - 08:18pm PT

My favorite sponsor said two things to me every time we talked on the phone:
"Steve, I just need to remember where I came from and that I can't do it alone. That's all I need to do."

Michelle

Social climber

1187 Hunterwasser

Aug 25, 2013 - 08:26pm PT

Surrender, ARGH!

Jaybro

Social climber

Wolf City, Wyoming

Aug 25, 2013 - 09:43pm PT

I'm not big on surrender, or the higher being, either. I just don't drink because my world runs better that way.

Oh and happy 'birthday' Terrie, and that other person too!!

bvb

Social climber

flagstaff arizona

Aug 25, 2013 - 10:30pm PT

Way to go Terrie! Only three meetings today, I'm slackin'.

tradmanclimbs

Ice climber

Pomfert VT

Aug 25, 2013 - 10:43pm PT

Reason i remember happies BD is about now is because today is my 7th. My best drinking bud from Silverton has been in VT all summer and we have done a bunch of great climbs (and a few stinkers) Alex still hits it pretty good. I do the driveing and he does the drinking. i hit my seltzer pretty hard and and the ice cream but managed to stay clean though there were a few rough spots. Alex leaves for CO tomorrow and we had a pretty big day @ Poko yesterday. Lot of multi pitch climbing and a lot of driveing. Looong day but I pulled through. should be easy sailing for a spell;)

Largo

Sport climber

The Big Wide Open Face

Aug 26, 2013 - 12:27am PT

Read the passage, "How it works," not as a suggestion, but as literal truth, because it is.

happiegrrrl

Trad climber

www.climbaddictdesigns.com

Aug 26, 2013 - 10:54am PT

Let's NOT forget that the AA Big Book also says that it is "Progress, not perfection."

The only thing I think I've been able to do 100% right has been to not pick up that first drink. Oftentimes I think I have more in common with the newbie counting days than the long-time sober.

I still struggle - daily - with the most basic facets of life, like interacting with others, being able to foresee the consequences of my actions and inactions, the Steps. Oh yes, I struggle with the Steps. I do tend to believe there is quite a bit of grace in that thing which is sobriety. It allows us to blunder and stumble and still "be sober."

Today is my anniversary and today I am living with a realization of how a previous negligence of activity has compounded in a way that I look back at and say "HOW could you not have realized...???" It does not feel good. I had hoped I had "stopped digging" the hole I was in, but noooo....

And yet, here I am, sober.

10b4me

Ice climber

Wishes-He-Was-In-Arizona

Aug 26, 2013 - 11:00am PT

Good for you Terrie.

TwistedCrank

climber

Bungwater Hollow, Ida-ho

Aug 26, 2013 - 11:03am PT

Practice these principles in all our affairs.

Just sayin.

happiegrrrl

Trad climber

www.climbaddictdesigns.com

Aug 26, 2013 - 11:36am PT

^ Followed in the Big Book - directly - with:

Many of us exclaimed, "What an order! I can't go through with it." Do not be discouraged. No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles. We are not saints. The point is, that we are willing to grow along spiritual lines. The principles we have set down are guides to progress. We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection.

S.Leeper

Social climber

somewhere that doesnt have anything over 90'

Aug 26, 2013 - 05:42pm PT

going to 2 meetings today because a brother from my noon meeting is doing his first step at the meeting tonight.

Higher power can be the collective consciousness of everyone in the meeting, doesn't have to be "god".

S.Leeper

Social climber

somewhere that doesnt have anything over 90'

Aug 27, 2013 - 05:01pm PT

bump for sobriety!

Got to hear a first step last night and it brought a tear or two to my eye.

Jaybro

Social climber

Wolf City, Wyoming

Aug 27, 2013 - 05:45pm PT

Good point on the 'god thing' S. Leeper! I always bring it up to reassure non believers like my self that there are non-theist, esp non-christian ways to sobriety. I interpret what you and others say, about not pining down the"higherforce" as something along the lines of, don't deny yourself the help and benefits of AA because of a "god" sticking point!

And, I fully agree! I'd like to think we're getting at the same thing fom differing points of view; An important life lesson in general!

That said, this can be a hard time for me as well. Yesterday is not only a coue Tacos' birthday, it's also Lucille day, the anniversary of the Fa of a climb in 1988 that changed a lot of the way I view things, and shaped my climbing life afterwards. All three of these things give me confidence and strength. Coming off that, I'm always caught by surprise to be a little down on the 27th. And every year I have to go through a thought process and remember that it was this day in 1979 that my father died of pancreatic cancer at age 56. He's also responsible in many ways for where I am as a climber, we sort of learned to climb together.
It's a funny year this year, as its the first year that I've reached an age beyond what he lived to. On top of that is the ambient sadness of losing Blitzo so recently in such a similar way.
I'm not in danger of drinking today. I'm in Vedauwoo, climbed and ran this morning; now I'm armed with a big gulp and back up seltzer, to go scope out tomorrow's project and then grill some salmon.

The thing that sobriety does for me in all this. Is that I can take theses extremes of high and low, and experience them, sort them out, and order them in my life. Which works a lot better for me than being overwhelmed by each and trying to dull it down, in an effort to control the feelings, with alcohol.

There are times when you need to be happy, and times its appropriate to feel sad. That's the joy, of life!

S.Leeper

Social climber

somewhere that doesnt have anything over 90'

Aug 27, 2013 - 06:21pm PT

Thank you Jay for sharing your feelings here.

Alot of us addicts, have stuffed or sedated our feelings with drugs, booze, sex, or what have you, for so long, expressing how we feel can be a new experience.

Love you all!