Seven Years

Today as I was driving about, by coincidence I pulled up behind one of my sons at a traffic light. Even if I hadn’t recognized his black truck, I would have known it was him just from the back of his head – mother’s intuition. My son is 24, has travelled around the world alone and even has his private pilot’s licence – he is by all accounts a grown man. Yet for the 90-odd seconds it took for the lights to change, I felt trapped in an emotional time warp of wishing my little boy was safe in a car-seat behind me, not doing his grown-up errands alone and oblivious to my presence (despite my crazy mom waves at his rear-view mirror). Where did the time go? I blinked and they all grew up.

It is seven years today since I broke free from the burden of daily drinking and claimed my life back. Alcohol Free. I became UnPickled. I blinked and seven more years passed!

If seven years sounds impossibly long, it isn’t. The first two weeks were long, after that the time flew passed much more easily.

These years have had some amazing moments, like travelling to Italy and hiking in the UK; some awful things, like losing my dad and father-in-law last year; some challenging things, like downsizing our business. I did it all sober. Going to industry events were probably my biggest hurdles, I did have one really crappy vacation but that was what ultimately made me decide to go to a “She Recovers” retreat and in the years since I have been to several more (and another next month and then again in December!!).

I celebrated my special day today with a massage and I just recorded a Bubble Hour episode – talking to recovery people always feels so good!.

It is a good day to be sober!