Good afternoon!  My name is Lauren and I'm a grateful recovering alcoholic/addict.  I've been very thankful this Thanksgiving season.  Now it is Christmas time.  I have been spending more quality time with my family.  I saw this quote by Abigail Van Buren and I love it!  It is so much better for my children and myself, to spend more time with them.  They will remember the fun times we had, hiking or fishing or just playing outside on the swingset more than the Barbie I got her or the Thomas the Train pillow.  Yes, they are nice things, and I do get them fun toys.  But in the long run, memories is what they will make and keep.  "Children are like wet cement.  Whatever falls on them makes in impression." -Dr. Haim Ginott.  This year I have been buying more gifts for them that are special to them, something personal or fun to do.  Laney has been helping me wrap presents.  I am showing her how, just like my mom taught me.  So someday, she can teach her daughter.  I want her to be able to teach her children the way to do things.  I am so thankful to be able to do that.  I wrote a poem this summer just watching her swing, just enjoying being a child. :)

Swing

I watch my daughter
play on her swingset.
She loves to swing.
She leans back
to feel breeze in her hair.
It blows back and forth 
opposite movement of her legs.
She smiles with her eyes closed
as the sun reflects off her face,
then a tree shadows her
only for a moment.
Her barefeet graze
what's left of grass
on a path under her swing.
She could swing all day,
if I would let her....
"Time for dinner!"

So enjoy ever second you have with those you love.  Have a great day!

Good morning!  My name is Lauren and I'm a smiling recovering alcoholic/addict. :)  Yesterday was kind of sad but true post.  But today I am gonna cheer it up a little.  I really like this little saying.  Your smile should be able to affect people, but don't let the world change yours.  A smile is the most beautiful curve on a woman's body, so flaunt it. I feel better about myself, just smiling.  I'm never fully dressed without smiling in the mirror first. :) That completed my outfit, and I always seem to look better with a smile on my face.  I know some days we fake a smile just to get through it, but a real one is so much better. A smile is infectious.  If you can smile, and make someone else smile, maybe they will do the same to someone else too.  So smile at someone today, maybe that is just what they needed. That's all for today!  :)   

Good morning! My name is Lauren and I'm a grateful recovering alcoholic/addict.  I always talk about perception and how you need to be happy, but life isn't perfect and you will have times when you are sad.  There are times in life where you should feel sad.  Losing someone a friend or someone you love, or anything you cared for.  But there is a difference between being sad and depression.  There is also a difference between being alone and isolation. Sometimes when you are sad you just want to be alone, that is fine.  You just need to make sure you don't do it forever. Life does go on.  Sometimes you want to talk about it sometimes you don't, but in the end you should "vent" somehow. You could do it through music, or writing, or whatever you like to do.  You can feel sad, but little by little you will feel better.  Feeling sad is part of life.  It is good that you are feeling too.  Feeling is what I was hiding with drinking.  I didn't want to feel.  It's hard learning to feel again, and sometimes those feeling I don't want to feel.  I want everything to be fine and dandy.  But without the sad times, I would appreciate the happy times as much.  So keep your head up!  So have a great day! 

Good morning!  My name is Lauren and I'm a grateful recovering alcoholic/addict.  HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Lately I have realized that I don't really need to ask God for anything.  He provides me with everything I need.  I just need to thank Him.  Everyday  I am more blessed. I am go grateful for everything God has done for me. Some people might think, me thanking God for EVERYTHING is crazy, but I am.  I have put myself in some bad situations, but God has always had my back.  He is always there to pick me back up.  So today, I am truly grateful for God's forgiveness.  For always being there, for loving me unconditionally.   And I will continue to thank Him everyday for His abundant blessings.  Have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!  Enjoy this time with your family, as you are too blessed.

Good morning!  My name is Lauren and I'm a grateful to be alive and sober today.  I have been so grateful for everything I have.  I have nothing more than when I was drinking except my sanity.  Yet I have so much more.  I am so grateful for my family and those still in my life.  I really like the above quote.  I used to think if I had more I would be happy. But now I am so thankful for what I do have, and I am so much happier.  There is always something to be thankful for.  Be thankful for what you have, and you'll end up having more.  If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never ever have enough. Thanksgiving is tomorrow and I am realizing that I am truly grateful for many things.  Every Thanksgiving we go around the table and say one thing we are happy for, and I would usually just say "friends and family."  But now I am so grateful for so much more, remembering each person individually not just a group of people.  Just realizing each breath is a gift, each memory I have is a blessing.  So be thankful today, for all you have.  Have a great day!

Good morning!  My name is Lauren and I'm a grateful recovering alcoholic/addict.  I used to think I deserved what I had.  I deserved to be miserable because of what I had done or not done.  I didn't deserve to happy. But it is true,  the moment I decided what I thought I really deserved, I knew I deserved it.  I deserved better.  I deserved to be happy.  But it wasn't only about what I deserved, it was about my family.  My kids didn't deserve to lose their mom when they were 6 and 2, because of her drinking. They didn't deserve to have her miss their first recital, their first t-ball game.   My husband didn't deserve to have a wife that didn't care, that didn't act like a "wife."  Last year, at school he looked like a singe father.  HE was the one going to her parent/teacher conferences. HE was the one picking her up at the bus stop.  They deserved better, to be happy. So now I am doing to what I can to make them happy, to make me happy.  To do what is best for my family.  I had to learn that my past was the past and I didn't deserve to be miserable for the rest of my life, I deserved to be happy.  So one day at a time, I will make my life better, and be happy.  Happiness is appreciating what you have, not getting what you want.  That's all for today!  Have a great one! 

Good morning!  My name is Lauren and I'm a grateful recovering alcoholic/addict. When I was drinking, I was miserable.  Miserable about everything.  Nothing made me happy.  And it was everyone else's fault.  I wanted everything my way, and I wanted it now.  I thought everything made me miserable.  But in all actuality, I was making myself miserable.  No one else was.  And I was hurting so many others.    And as I'm sure you have heard,  Misery loves company. I was making everyone around me miserable.  I was hurting them.  Today, I feel terrible for what I have done, or not done. I will never be able to make up those first's that I missed.  You will see in the following poem, how I really felt.  I had put myself into the hole I dug, and I thought I should stay there.   I am enjoying every moment alive.  I don't want to hurt anyone anymore, only help.

Misery

I am comfortable in my "little world."
I've been stuck here so long
I don't know
if I can ever get out.
Or if I really want to.
I enjoy drinking every day.
Getting sick all the time.
Getting sick from drinking too much.
From not drinking.
I enjoy being hopeless.
For hating my job.
My boss.
My life.
I am comfortable
 in my misery.
I have caused it.
So I should suffer.
I enjoy missing
family functions.
Dinners.
Family reunions.
Cookouts.
Christmas'.
I can't be gone
long enough to not drink.
Or I will get sick.
Or someone will notice.
I enjoy only getting 1/2 a paycheeck,
because I missed work.
I have a headache.
My stomach hurts.
My throat hurts.
I lie. To you.
To everyone.
To myself.
I enjoy missing
important moments
in my children's lives.
Their first day of kindergarten.
First t-ball game.
First recital.
I enjoy blaming my husband for everything.
For what he didn't do right.
Or what he didn't do at all.
I enjoy losing the trust of my family.
Mom.
Dad.
Husband.
Children.
I enjoy this misery.
So here I shall stay.

So that's all for today!  have a great one!

Good morning!  My name is Lauren and I'm a grateful recovering alcoholic/addict. I really like that quote.  Jesse Jackson said that. We don't ever need to look down on anyone.  We are all equals.  Some may have more material things than others, but that means nothing.  We cannot take anything with us when we die.  It is all in in your heart and soul.  "Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them."  -Dalai Lama.  So if you are going to be selfish and not help others, don't be mean or knock them down.  They are or have been down, and are looking to get up, or looking for a hand to get up.  Helping others is the most humbling thing.  I have been trying to do the next right thing, and help someone else.  I have had so many others help me through my struggles, it is about time I do the service and help someone else.  We really shouldn't need a reason to help people, we just should.  Helping others is a great way to help ourselves. Here is a brevity poem about altruism or selflessness. 

Someday

You go out of your way
to help me,
yet it hurts you.
Why?
You are a gift 
from God.
Thank you.
I will 
pay it forward...
someday.

So help someone today!  Have a great one! 

Good morning!  My name is Lauren and I'm a grateful recovering alcoholic/addict.  It is almost Thanksgiving, and I am remembering all the things I need to be thankful for, and it's mostly people.  I really am so thankful for all the people that stuck by me through all the crap recently.  Those who loved me when I didn't love myself.  Those who cared about me when I didn't care.  I am also thankful for all the people, positive and negative, for you have made me who I am today.  I am so very thankful for all the people who have come into my life through recovery.  Those who have been where I have been, and are there with me moving forward.  And for those who have stayed there through it all. There are some people who aren't there anymore, and I am partially to blame, because I didn't care.  I am very grateful for my life that I have today.  My family and friends, new and old, I thank you, and I can't thank you enough. You have made me a stronger woman today.  Sometimes I am thankful, but don't say anything.  I think they just know.  So again I say thank you.  So thank someone you love today!  I'm sure they don't hear it enough. Have a great day!   

Good morning!  My name is Lauren and I'm a grateful recovering alcoholic/addict.  I know we all make mistakes, we are human.  We need to learn from them, live for today, because that is all we have, and tomorrow is not promised.  Complaining about yesterday doesn't make today any better. We need to make the best of today.  Enjoy the life we have, the little things of today will be the big things of yesterday.  Life is short, so live it.  We need to enjoy the people we love, let them enjoy us.  We may not know what me mean to others.  I need to be the reason someone smiles.  So if you are reading this, smile!  :) That is at least one happy memory for today.  I hope you enjoy reading these.  I enjoy writing them.  And if I can help one person make it through today, it is a good day.  To let someone know they are not alone, they are not crazy.  I think it's interesting when people say they are "different," it is used as a bad connotation. Different than what.  What is "normal?"  Normal is boring.  So then I want to be different. Anyways, that is a topic for another day.  :)  Here is a short tlittle poem I wrote. 

Tomorrow
I live for what is now.
The next day is not here,
nor promised.
And you?

Have a great day!