Gratitude

1.12.25

Gratitude has been a hot topic at meetings lately, probably because it’s the new year season. This year gratitude means more to me than it ever has before. Of course I’d had reasons to be grateful for in the past, but my first memory of gratitude is of being told that I needed to be grateful and what I needed to be grateful for. From the time we’re young we are told that we need to be grateful for a roof over our heads, food in our bellies, and so on, leaving a bitter taste to the word. It’s absolutely true that we need or should be grateful for these things, however, most of us don’t want to be told what to do and will proceed to do the exact opposite. Especially addicts, we are selfish and stubborn people by nature.

In rehab grateful was also a pretty hot topic but it was explained very differently, and we had 28 days to learn about the meaning of being grateful and how it affects our lives on a daily basis. For alcoholics it’s not if you hit rock bottom, it’s when, because we all do. Even for those of us classified as highly functional alcoholics, it’s only a matter of time before you wake up one day and you’re no longer highly functional. When you do reach rock bottom, it’s emotional, spiritual, mental, and most of the time physical. Many alcoholics find themselves severely unhealthy, sometimes even close to death. Getting sober brings a huge sense of gratitude for all of these things. Being alive itself is something to be grateful for.

Now when I think of gratitude and all the reasons that I have to be grateful the bitter taste and resentment are replaced with happiness. I want to share and tell everyone what I’m grateful for and I want to hear what all of my friends are grateful for. Not just on special occasions, every day, because there is always so much to be grateful for.