Robert Manners

I'm Eight

No, darlings, not eight inches (though that would be nice). Today I have eight years of sobriety. Eight years ago today I made one of the few decisions of this lifetime that I've never regretted... compared to the tens of thousands of decisions I regretted almost immediately upon making them, and the twenty or so thousand that I regretted some years later.



Eight years sounds like a long time, but in some ways it isn't. I mean, some days I feel like I've been sober forever, all my life... which in a certain way is true, since my life started over when I quit drinking and started practicing a spiritual life; and since I don't really remember much of what went on when I was drinking. On other days, I feel like the whole thing is just flashing by at supersonic speed... they say time flies when you're having fun, and with only a few detours through the depths of despair and the vales of tears (painstakingly chronicled here during the last year), I've been having a pretty good time.



Even today, when I'm so busy I didn't have time to write a lot of thoughts on being eight (as if I had any thoughts... it's much too hot outside to think, I'm terrified of leaving my nice cool office), I feel pretty damned happy. I'm happy I made it this far, I'm happy it didn't cost all that much effort to get here, and I'm happy I had so many people boosting me along all this time. Thanks everyone!