A Meaningful Stretch of Road

Today I am grateful for a morning run and the first sip of my morning coffee.

Amidst the meaningful conversations, hugs, tears, and laughter this weekend, there was also a meaningful stretch of road my husband Darcy and I ran down on Sunday morning. It is a stretch that looms large in my life‘s journey, but it had been many years since I covered it on foot or by car.

It is a gravel road on the edge of town in Calmar, Iowa. It is where I was living in 1989, a second-year teacher, a coach, and an active alcoholic.

I took a walk on this road on Labor Day that year, September 4. Several things had come together to bring me to this point: years of drinking, a particularly bad drunk a few weeks prior, a friend sending me a letter in a book, my sister sharing her concerns. 

This was after other friends had expressed concern along the way, after some minor legal consequences a couple of times, many blackouts and regrets, many failed attempts to quit on my own. After struggling with who I saw in the mirror for years. I knew I wasn't a normal drinker. I never had been.

On this day, this walk, I also came to the very crucial realization that I could not quit on my own. I needed help. I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. I came to a very important juncture on my journey, and I decided to seek help. Within days, I did just that. I continue to this day. 

That help connects me to others in recovery and helps me apply healthy habits. Daily work for a daily disease. It makes all the difference. 

That walk on that day marks the start of my sobriety, my ongoing recovery. I took that walk alone physically, but I wasn't alone. I wasn't alone then, and I am not alone now.  A Great Spirit guides me, putting supportive people in my life, along meaningful stretches of road.