They understood that the race was not over. They knew the finish line was still there to be crossed. The kilometers or miles behind them were not run in vain. Those meters and feet meant something because they had been completed. This is where I am. This is where many of us have found ourselves before. Sobriety is not a sprint. It ’ s a marathon. A fall is not the end, the race is still continuing. The kilometers behind us still count. So what next? You tripped. Maybe skinned your knee a little. Your ego is bruised slightly. Perhaps embarrassed as well. But dammit. You ’ re getting back up. I said, YOU ’ RE GETTING BACK UP. We still have a finish line to cross – TOGETHER. Alright, enough with the running metaphor, I believe you get the point by now. So let ’ s have some straight talk. Many of us will relapse. Some of us several times. Statistically, there are readers right now who relapsed just today. It ’ s ok. It ’ s not great, it ’ s not good. But, it ’ s ok. The recovery process will have moments like this. Recovery is not a rigid plan that guarantees success, no matter what program or process you are in. But here ’ s the truth… if you begin to fall away from your plan, if you step away from the things that have been successful, you open the door to temporary setbacks and failures. That ’ s exactly what I did, and exactly what so many of us have done. So what is the so what? You already know. We make mistakes. We dust ourselves off when we trip and fall ( sorry about returning to the running metaphor ) , we get back up and keep pushing forward to the finish line.
I hope to see you there.
Photograph courtesy of Travis Akers
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