This is the season where we celebrate a tradition called Thanksgiving. We set aside one day a year to corporately give thanks for the things with which we are blessed. I understand the importance of corporate celebration in such a manner and setting aside time in our nation, in our homes, and in our communities to show Thanksgiving. What I want to suggest to you is having only one day we set aside to demonstrate how are Thankful is to sell short all the things that we must be thankful for. As a person of the recovery community, I find every day to be a day in which to be thankful. I celebrate 365 thanksgivings per year. Not in the traditional sense that we would celebrate on our designated Thanksgiving Day, in some ways even greater than what we would. The Thanksgiving that I celebrate on the daily basis is not about turkey, stuffing, or sweet potato pie. What it is about, is what I have been saved from. Coming from where we come from, many of us are fortunate to be alive, let alone free and most of us in our right mind. So many of us have had new things added to our life and many have had things restored to our life. Both the new things and the old things restored are beyond our comprehension. Yet here we sit with an abundance when our actions indicated that we should have nothing. For many of us, we gave up living when alcohol, drugs, and contributing behaviors took charge of our life. We began a downward spiral that most people never recover from. If you are reading this and you are a person of recovery, then please understand we are the exception. We are not the rule. The rule is that people who do what we did, where we did it, and who we did it with us are subject to a life that is filled with despair, depression, and discouragement. We are not a person who deserves to be happy, joyous, and free. Yet here we are. I hope that we have joined together to enjoy our traditional Thanksgiving. I hope you have an opportunity as I to share with family friends all the things that we must be grateful. But let us not let it stop on Thursday. To be truly grateful and truly embrace the things that we have to be grateful for requires me to do so on a daily basis. As so many of the 12 step programs and even the monotheist religions of the world indicate, we live and walk in daily gratitude for the things that we have been given. Especially in 12 step recovery and more specifically Alcoholics Anonymous, it reads that “what we really have is a DAILY reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual conditioning.” One of the well-known phrases is “one day at a time.” It is not one month at a time, or one year at a time. It is one day at a time. Therefore, I choose my Thanksgiving 365 days per year, and I rejoice in all the things that I have to be thankful for. Do I celebrate Thanksgiving on the 4th Thursday of November, of course, I do. I am a living testimony of things to be thankful for. More important than verbalizing my gratitude is living in my gratitude. I live in my Thanksgiving. I hope you do the same. I hope your Thanksgiving is one of joy and thankfulness. I hope it continues daily. I hope you continue in joining me and countless others on this road to happy destiny. Stay blessed, get well, and let us share our common message of hope to those who are searching for the hope that we have found.
Robert Pardon
Robert is the Recovery Guy. Getting clean and sober on April 25, 1986 has given me the insight and practical skill set to not only stay sober, but to also re-invent myself to the person I always wanted to become. Showing others how to do this is my life goal.
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