As we recover; we gain a new outlook on being sober.... Life can become a new adventure for us.
The drinking life is not a clean one-no one knows this better than we do. Some of us lived in physical squalor, caring neither for our surroundings nor ourselves. Worse, though, than any external filth was the way most of us felt inside. The things we did to get our alcohol, the way we treated other people, and the way we treated ourselves had us feeling dirty. Many of us recall waking too many mornings just wishing that, for once, we could feel sober about ourselves and our lives.
Today, we have a chance to feel sober by living sober. For us alcoholics, living sober starts with not drinking - after all, that's our primary use for the word "sober" in recovery. But as we stay "sober" and work the Twelve Steps, we discover another kind of sobriety. It's the soberity that comes from admitting the truth about our alcoholism rather than hiding or denying our disease. It's the freshness that comes from owning up to our wrongs and making amends for them. It's the vitality that comes from the new set of values we develop as we seek a Higher Power's will for us. When we practice the principles of our program in all our affairs, we have no reason to feel dirty about our lives or our lifestyles - we're living sober, and grateful to be doing so at last.
"Sober living" used to be just for the "squares." Today, living sober is the only way we'd have it.
Just for Today: I feel sober because I'm living sober - and that's the way I want to keep it.