`~Go now and live. Experience. Dream. Risk. Close your eyes and jump. Enjoy the freefall. Choose exhilaration over comfort. Choose magic over predictability. Choose potential over safety. Wake up to the magic of everyday life. Make friends with your intuition. Trust your gut. Discover the beauty of uncertainty. Know yourself fully before you make promises to another. Make millions of mistakes so that you will know how to choose what you really need. Know when to hold on and when to let go. Love hard and often and without reservation. Seek knowledge. Open yourself to possibility. Keep your heart open, your head high, and your spirit free. Be wrong every once in awhile and don't be afraid to admit it. Awaken to the brilliance in ordinary moments. Tell the truth about yourself no matter what the cost. Own your reality without apology. See goodness in the world. Be bold. Be fierce. Be grateful. Be wild, crazy, and gloriously free. Be you. Go now and live.~~ Jeannette leblanc, 2008
I could tell you stories of courageous survivors. I could tell you stories of horrendous loss. Brave souls. Amazing grace. I've seen it all. And I hope I have shown some of these qualities in my own life as well.
But being here, now? It isn't about the stories of my friends, my students, my clients, or even me. This is for you. For the one here who is teetering on the brink of relapse. The one here who is only wondering about quitting and not ready to commit. The one here who is starting over at day 1 for the umpteenth time.
If you are that one, this is for you. Life is waiting for you. Seriously. Just on the other side of addiction, which messes with your head and tells you that you can't....you can't quit, you can't last, you can't survive.
All lies. I promise you that. All lies.
You can quit. You can last. You can survive. Not because I have done it or Dale has done it or Giulia has done it. But because of you. Only you and the choices you make.
Choose to move past the lies of addiction. Choose to live. Choose to hang tough instead of giving up. Choose life over a preventable death.
And by choosing, you break free of the thoughts that addiction dictates. No more "I can't". Instead it will be "I choose".
Then life with embrace you with joy and freedom and all the things addiction keeps at bay. All those things you read in the above quote...all the things you have avoided by smoking...all the things that have faded as addiction grew stronger.
So this is for you today. I wanted to give you glimpses of how things can be once you choose to let go of addiction. You get to choose, you know. To believe in yourself or in the lies of addiction. I can't quit for you but I can remind you that you don't need anyone to do it for you. Because you can do it for yourself 
