Spending my life swimming in chemical soup.

Sobriety is less about the act of consumption and more about the command of oneself. 

It’s about the independence from craving. Not allowing things to consume us, so to speak. 

Public health agencies have done a helpful job of reframing the official definition of sobriety. They refer to it as the achievement and maintenance of control over, and equilibrium in, our life in general. 

Interestingly enough, they mention that sobriety is considered to be the natural state of a human being given at a birth. 

And so, what we are talking about here is a return. Not to an unattainable place of perfection, but to an inherent posture of wholeness. It’s who we were before the world told us who we needed to be. 

In the fascinating recoverydevotional about walking in dry places, one sober man made a brilliant observation:

In this frantic seeking, our basic delusion is that substances can satisfy what is really a spiritual need. Instead of realizing that there is a law of diminishing returns in the abuse of such things, we cling to the delusion that just one more will bring the relief and satisfaction we want. 

What consumes you? What destroys your equilibrium? What is the thing that makes you lose command of yourself? 

Of course, there is no need to judge yourself for these things. And there is no need to remove all of these things from your life. 

There is only the invitation to accept that they exist. 

And if sobriety is something that is meaningful you, they are the obstacle that is the way. 

LET ME ASK YA THIS…

What helps you achieve independence from craving?