Four Years Sober (We’re never really sure we will)

If you see me today, congratulate me. In fact, if you see me at any time over the next few days, I’d appreciate it if you would do so. Today, July 8, 2017, marks my four-year sober date.

What’s more, next week, the 14th, I’ll celebrate four years off cigarettes. I do vape, and, while the only perfect way to abstain from cigarettes is to quit cold turkey and never go back, vaping is certainly a healthy alternative.

Had you told me 20 years ago that I would one day be able to say “It has been four years since I was a drinker and smoker,” I would have had a hard time believing you. I would have wanted to believe you, and I imagine I would have said that I did. Still, when we’re in the throes of such abuses to our bodies, we’re never really sure we will get through them. We hope we will, and we tell ourselves we will, but we’re just not sure. We haven’t, you see, and all we can know is all we do know.

But now I have, for four years at least. I realize that those 1461 days don’t guarantee that I will go this one more, but at least I have them, and it’s easier to do something the 1462nd time than it is to do it the first.

Please keep us in your warm thoughts and prayers, as you are in ours.