Recovery Should be Celebrated Every Day!
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Recovery is Every Day!
Did you know that September is officially "Recovery Month"? This awareness event is sponsored by SAMHSA National Recovery Month 2022 | SAMHSA and Faces and Voices of Recovery Home - Recovery Month (facesandvoicesofrecovery.org)
Let me tell you a metaphor about my recovery and holidays. When I attended college, my friend Jeff and I would sit on a bench in the middle of campus. When people walked by, we would often greet those we knew with a "happy earth day!". We would do this every day, even though Earth Day was only one day a year. Folks would respond, 'Today isn't Earth Day', to which we would inevitably respond 'Every day is Earth Day!' Jeff and I both believed that every day was an Earth Day, even if it was only celebrated officially one day a year.
My recovery is just like Earth Day. Every day is a day in recovery. Every day in recovery has a bit of happiness and satisfaction that I made good choices for one more day. Now I know that September being labeled as Recovery Month is really about raising awareness that recovery is possible for a broad audience of people not in recovery. It is a worthy mission, and I applaud it. I appreciate the effort to destigmatize recovery from substance-use and addiction.
In my LifeRing meetings, it is almost focused on a circle of people experiencing recovery and discovering their own pathway to recovery. While we discuss the world around us and people outside the circle, the support is outwards. I don't do enough to make people outside of LifeRing aware of what we do or how we do it. Hopefully Recovery Month can help us pay a little bit of attention to raising that awareness for the people outside our circle.
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LifeRing is hosting an online, open house Recovery Celebration on September 24th from 2:00pm to 9:00pm Pacific Time. For more information, please see the LifeRing News Blog, the LifeRing Events webpage and the Faces & Voices Recovery Month Calendar
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Help us help others. Your donations support the growth of LifeRing peer-to-peer support communities and the celebration of recovery every day. Thank you!
For other ways you can contribute to LifeRing, please consider being a LifeRing Convenor or a LifeRing Volunteer or the LifeRing Executive Director.
thanks for this, mike mc c!!
kathleen g
what is LifeRing “New Generation”? What happened to the “Old Generation”?
Hey Bob — The LifeRing First Generation is still going strong. Check it out!