Focusing on One Day at a Time
The key to living a life of recovery and surviving moments of intense suffering
In every AA meeting, there will be a moment when anyone, regardless of their time in recovery, can accept a 24 hour chip. The 24 hour chip symbolizes how we maintain our recovery journey one single day at a time. It is a powerful message and one that has saved me both during my recovery journey as well as navigating the difficulties of losing Lucy.
I almost hesitate to write this because it sounds so ridiculous, but ever since entering recovery I have woken up each day with incredible gratitude and excitement for having another day in front of me. The potential that exists in a day of life is incredible, especially after I threw away and wasted so many of my days in nearly fifteen years of drinking.
When I entered recovery, I was nervous about what it meant to be committed to being sober for the rest of my life. It felt like a lot. Then, during our experience with Lucy and her life, I realized something profound. Life is fragile and nothing is guaranteed. As healthy as I may be today, that doesn’t mean that there can’t be a freak accident a few hours from now. It completely transformed my outlook on my recovery journey.
I am committed to a life in recovery. Whether that’s 30 more minutes or 30 more years, I am not the one to say or to know that. But, I can look at today and maintain commitment to staying in recovery for this day. That much I can do, regardless of what may come up before me in the day.
There are a few reasons that I really enjoy the AA meeting that I attend a couple times a week. The people are amazing, we close with the Lord’s Prayer (a super awkward omission by contemporary ministers and churches if you ask me), and we have a few meaningful readings that are done every single meeting. Below is one that is just called the Sanskrit Proverb. I really have no other context outside of that. But its words are profound, at least to me.
I encourage the reader to read this passage numerous times and really let it sink in. Live well this day, it’s the only thing that you can do.
Look to this day,
For it is life,
The very life of life.
In its brief course lies all
The realities and verities of existence,
The bliss of growth,
The splendour of action,
The glory of Power —
For yesterday is but a dream
And tomorrow is only a vision.
But today, well lived,
Makes every yesterday
A dream of happiness,
And every tomorrow
A vision of hope.
Look well, therefore, to this day.
That’s all I’ve got,
Kyle