For most of my life, the turn of the year felt like judgment day. Another calendar, same pain. Same anxiety. Same carousel of thoughts I couldn’t get off. This year feels different. There’s still uncertainty. There are still unknowns. But under all of it, there’s something I’ve never had before: peace. A quiet sense that I’m no longer trapped inside myself. A few nights ago, before a meeting, I sat down with my sponsor — my longtime recovery mentor — to talk through what we c

What the Holidays Really Stir Up When recovery meets the quiet return of old escape thoughts When the Thought Came Out of Nowhere The season whispers before you notice A couple of months ago, I told Barry I wanted to “get out of Dodge” for a week sometime during the holidays — anytime from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Eve. That may not sound alarming on the surface. Plenty of people want to escape the holidays. But what caught my attention was how suddenly the thought appe

How to move from ‘getting through the holidays’ to savoring gratitude, miracles, and second chances. Every December, it feels like the whole world shifts into survival mode.We talk about “getting through” the holidays as if joy is something we have to navigate around. Stress becomes the default, even when everything around us is supposedly beautiful. And yes, we need tools for boundaries, stress, and emotional protection. That work matters. But that’s only one side of the coi