If you've just been here over the last month, you may not know who I am. But I know each of you - you are part of our beautiful Family of EXers! We are incredibly diverse and inclusive. We love you already for making one of the toughest and most rewarding decisions of your life and we're here in the ebb and flow of attention to spread the word of freedom from addiction and the amazing road of Recovery - Self-Discovery and sharing our deepest Selves with the Community. I have often said over these last 9 Years smoke-free that you folks here know me better than my best 3D Family and Friends. It's true. There's a soul searching reality about recovery.
We often speak of Grief which is a huge part of Recovery and the part we wish we could run from or skip over the most. But please remember that the last step of Grief is Acceptance - of God, of Life, of Ourselves. When we get there we embrace all that is good and right about living.
Do you think I'm being too rosy? Then you don't yet know me. I have great bouts of depression and anxiety. I'm sailing along and out of nowhere fall off this giant abyss into a deep black cavern! But I don't relinquish my responsibility to smoke-free Life! I go on baby step by step and sometimes crawl by crawl back into the light always protecting my Recovery because there is one Law for us here - The Law of Addiction!
"Administration of a drug to an addict will cause
re-establishment of chemical dependence
upon the addictive substance."
This single truth is what we share. It gives us the ability to find ourselves in the Freedom from Addiction because in the midst of our grief we live and breathe:
Not
One
Puff
Ever
I know it may be hard to believe that it's that simple but ask any Elder (with more than 365 days smoke-free) and you will find a thousand different ways of saying the same thing!
We so much desire for you to know this feeling of belonging whether Life is easy or hard, simple or complex, shallow or deep, ...whatever terms Life has for us we belong - you belong! Make yourself at home! Don't be afraid to tell us the good, the bad, and the ugly because we're here for you through all of it. You are - We are - Family!
