July 23

PATIENCE MONTH: DAY 23: “Persistent perseverance is the only patience there is.”― Lailah Gifty Akita

What if we all kept at this thing as deeply and intensely as we did with drinking and using? What if? It would be amazing how far we could go into deep recovery instead of dipping our toes into these steps and progressing into true healing and shifting our lives.

I love that thought. It feeds my soul. I am very persistent at whatever I am doing. I don’t give up very easily and that is either called stubbornness or persistence, depending on what day it is and how it is affecting my life.

I will go to extents unbelieved by even me in some cases. The one that sticks with me is quitting smoking. Because of the levels of trauma in my life, I held onto those damned cigarettes for far longer than I thought I would. It took me ten years of consistent, persistent, and determined effort to quit. A lot of people just let them go and can use the program to make it work. I wish that were my story. I had to go to unbelievable places to quit. It was interesting, to say the least. It has been 19 years now since that time and I am still very strongly pulled toward smoking. I just do not do it today.

But I learned how deeply I needed to go into these steps to quit. And I have never looked back. I was pretty deeply involved in working them before, but had more and more reason to use them when I no longer smoked. And so it goes on and on. A wonderful spiral of healing and recovery. Steps 4 through 9 at least twice a year and the rest every day. It is a gift and a treasure for me. And I am persistent and perseverant in all of that.