A mother wrote to me: Today, I’m grateful. My son, who has been addicted for years, finally chose to turn his life around after he was shot in a drug deal. He still carries the bullet an inch from his spine, too risky to remove. He has ten months sober and is living in a sober house. It’s all such a blur to me now, but today he’s good. One day at a time.
My reflection: It’s easy to drown in the baffling chaos that is addiction, but gratitude can serve as an emotional life raft in the face of it. Even if this day is full of sorrow, gratitude helps me to identify the many positive things in my life – as simple as some of them might be.
Today’s Promise to consider: Today, Jeff is good and our family is stronger for all we’ve suffered through. I would never say that I’m grateful for addiction, but I am grateful for the lessons learned. Despite what pop culture tells us, happiness is something we work for and I must decide every day to work for it. Gratitude is the gateway. Our family wishes you a Happy Thanksgiving.
Thank you for your weekly blog. I look forward to reading them every week. I am grateful this year for my son’s 3 months of sobriety and his company today. I’m also grateful for my other son’s 2 little boys 6 weeks old and 17 months old. Life is very good today.
Love and gratitude to you and your family Libby for the wisdom you have shared, the courage you have had in offering so much– grateful to you for myself and my family but also thinking of all the lives and souls you have reached with your book and this weekly blog-grateful for everyone l’ve “met” here as we continue to heal wherever we are in the ongoing journey. Day by day. Libby, we have received such hope and healing through you. I call that a kind of miracle. Thanksgiving. Thanks for all your giving.
“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” ~ Melody Beattie
Thank you God for helping this young Man
As I still struggle to let go and surrender, each and everyone of your posts gives me continued hope and strength. My prayer and mantra for today is: “My Faith is in God”, which~for me~brings peace into my thinking and processing. As I reflect on my family’s Thanksgiving gathering, I am viewing that day with gratitude for “what is”, instead of mourning “what could’ve been). Peace, joy and blessings I send to your family during this sacred Season, Libby.