“I am grateful to the many people over the years who have participated and are participating in my recovery. I always had a life. Thanks to Marijuana Anonymous, I now have a life worth living.”

– A Life Worth Living, Life with Hope, second edition, pages 167-168

I once read that gratitude and acceptance are the two most important tools in recovery. I have found this to be true for me. When I’m in acceptance, I cease fighting what I cannot change. When I remember gratitude, I realize I have many blessings to be grateful for, starting with my sobriety and recovery.

At five years clean and sober I went through a very traumatic event. Early in my recovery, I would hear at meetings that, “God never gives you more than you can handle.” For a while, I found this comforting. After this traumatic event, I felt so overwhelmed and unable to cope, that I got mad at my Higher Power for giving me much more than I could handle. After a lot of recovery work, I changed that phrase to “life sometimes gives you more than you can handle, that’s why you need a Higher Power.”

As I crawled back from that, I also realized that my addiction focuses on the negative. It is always focused on what’s wrong. To change this negative focus, I began to practice gratitude. For the first seven years of my recovery, gratitude was an annoying topic at a meeting, especially in November. Now, gratitude is a daily practice that helps my recovery. Today, I believe that acceptance really is the key to serenity. Fighting what is happening in my life never helps. When I accept life as it is, the next right thing becomes clear.

Final thought: Today, I give thanks for the blessings in my life, starting with my clean and sober life, and my recovery.