"It's not the mistake that matters but what you do about it." - Jeff Jarvis

Getting drunk was like borrowing happiness from tomorrow. 

Tomorrow never came. Unless you count waking up in the hospital and not knowing how you got there.

It's not that way today. Most of the wreckage of my past (deep in my addiction and recently) has caught up with me and I have dealt with my lion's share of it. I will continue to do so as I grow older and hopefully a bit wiser. 

REPAIR and REPLACE sums it all up in a nice little package. I could spell out countless examples, but we all have our own Catalogs of Mistakes. The Serenity Prayer offers a Window from which to view our mistakes. I try to accept the things I cannot change and to change the things I can. I got Cancer many years after I quit smoking. My chemo and radiation treatments have been followed by due diligence. 

Today gives me the opportunity to turn yesterday's mistakes into tomorrow's wisdom. Naturally, I fail early and often. I grew little emotionally from my teenage years through my 30-year drinking and drugging career, but I now have the chance to live a better, cleaner and more sober life. 

Today, I try to appreciate what I cannot change, to learn from what I can change and to share where and when I can that LIFE IS GOOD. 

Today, living CLEAN and SOBER is a sort of an insurance that my tomorrow's will be as gratifying as they can be. To paraphrase, "It's not my mistakes that matter, but doing what I have done and will continue do about them" that count for me.

Stated another way, I have LIVED and LEARNED. 

Happiness IS INSIDE OF today when I allow it. It cannot be begged for, borrowed or stolen. It is unwrapped in the present, the unsought product of peaceful thoughts and productive actions. As Abraham Lincoln has said, "When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion."

What I do about my mistakes makes me feel better, not worse. 

Simple. Not Easy, of course, but Definitely Worth It!

Happy to Listen. Happy to Share.

Happy for the state of being we call happiness.

Change what you can. "It's not the mistake that matters but what you do about it." - Jeff Jarvis

*****

Check out my NEW Non-Fiction, BECOMING UNBROKEN: Reflections on Addiction and Recovery (Find it on Amazon, Book it here): https://lnkd.in/dkF767RT 

Or immerse yourself in my Descent into Addiction and eventual Recovery in my Autobiographical Fiction, ALL DRINKING ASIDE: The Destruction, Deconstruction & Reconstruction of an Alcoholic Animal (Find it on Amazon. Book it here): https://lnkd.in/esP83n-c

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I hope you enjoy BOTH of my BOOKS on ADDICTION & RECOVERY! (Print & Kindle Versions of Both are Available!)