Recovery Should be Celebrated Every Day!

Image of LifeRing Recovery Month Logo

Recovery is Every Day!

Mike M is a longtime LifeRing member, an active LifeRing Convenor and our LifeRing resident grant writer. We're proud to share Mike's first contribution to the LifeRing News Blog! 

 


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.

— Mike M | LifeRing New Generation .

 

______________________________________

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

______________________________________

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.

 

3 Comments

  1. kathleen gargan on September 15, 2022 at 12:02 pm

    thanks for this, mike mc c!!
    kathleen g



  2. Lifering Bob on September 15, 2022 at 11:47 am

    what is LifeRing “New Generation”? What happened to the “Old Generation”?



    • Bees on September 15, 2022 at 12:18 pm

      Hey Bob — The LifeRing First Generation is still going strong. Check it out!