Hi! Thanks for reading. You may have noticed I’ve scaled back from weekly to bi-monthly. It just makes sense right now. I’m also still rethinking my strategy, if you’ve been following me you know that I’ve been struggling to find purpose in this space. I know it’s to keep ME sober, but what about all of you? What are you gaining from this? Do you read this out of curiosity, entertainment, because you’re sober-curious?
I’ve thought about changing up the content a bit – I would still give you a little journal entry like I’ve been doing, but I’d do it 90’s magazine style: a little recipe, a little embarrassing (drinking) story, some product recs, a listicle maybe. It would be longer and maybe I would only do it once a month.
Anyway, this was my first sober Mother’s Day in a really long time and I have to say it was downright lovely. I was driving down the Kohala coast Sunday afternoon on my way to meet up with some of my mom friends and their families at the beach and I thought back to last Mother’s Day.
I was at the house we were renting in the woods of NorCal. A beautiful spot on a cliff overlooking the Eel River, someone’s second home in the summer. It had amenities as such… a sprawling wooden deck, pool, island kitchen with designer appliances and a concrete countertop, vaulted ceilings and a classic wood burning stove/fireplace. It was the epitome of hygge, especially as those winter storms whipped through the river valley, knocking out trees and power lines and covering the property in ice and snow — the warm glow of the stove the only light for miles.
Last Mother’s Day was pretty lovely too. Nothing bad happened even though I drank at least a bottle and a half of champagne. We cooked so much food. Our friends came over. The kids played in the backyard. The sun shined as we clinked glasses lounging in the deck chairs. We laughed.
That’s the thing about drinking: sometimes it’s fine. It tricks you into thinking that since it’s not a disaster everytime you drink you aren't an alcoholic. It’s a false sense of security that feels so warm and comforting.
But what’s so funny to me now is that when you’re drinking, you think drinking makes everything more fun. You romanticize it. You center activities around it and spend so much energy and money on the drinks. It’s only when you stop and experience those same situations sober do you realize it’s even better than you ever thought (and cheaper lol).