12 YEARS NOT A SLAVE
A CHAT WITH BRENDA MCNAMARA
During my downtime I find myself seeking out powerful women who happened to be sober and this is how I came across the lovely Brenda on Twitter . She posted a picture celebrating her 12 - year sober anniversary and her radiance and obvious joy made me want to know more ! I checked out her timeline posts and could see she was a confident young lady in her sobriety and reached out to her when she kindly agreed to zoom so that we could have a chat . I met a vibrant and lovely lady whose openness about her journey was fresh and up my street of a la carte modern recovery . Brenda has her way with a strong faith and that is what sustains her on her journey in sobriety . Her descent in alcohol went the usual route of not being an issue in her young years as she was into sport and loved soccer which in many ways kept her on the straight and narrow but alcohol is always fun until it stops being anything but fun . This destructive drinking notched up DUI ' s and with no structure or rhythm in her day other than drinking beer the wheels were fast coming off the truck . Sometimes there is one big rock bottom moment and she credits her last DUI as the moment when she realised that enough was enough . Facing jail on her third DUI , she spoke with her parents and decided she would enter into the program offered as the alternative to prison and worked her ass off to understand her addiction and work to remove it from her life . She also believes that in the . the moment she surrendered to the problem was the moment she found her way out and knows it was a BIG part of her fundamental shift from addiction to freedom . What was so refreshing about Brenda was her energy and her belief that her recovery did not ' have to include relapse ' - she will not entertain the idea for a moment on her journey . She is fully aware of the gift that sobriety is in her life and embraces every second of it . She discovered hiking in recovery and now considers it one of the biggest tools in her sober toolbox ensuring she is exercising , challenged and out in nature combining three crucial pieces in her life . Everything about Brenda was as adorable as I figured she would be and she will join us later in the month for a Hola Sober Sunday meeting to have a chat with the closed group and I believe they will be the better for meeting her just as I was .
A shot of Brenda at the top of the famous Mt. Whitney-the highest peak in the lower 48 states and one of the biggest achievements of her life!
| AUGUS T 202 1 • HOL A SOB E R |
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