While in recovery there can be days that creep by so slowly you’d swear some have been deliberately stretched just to torture you. Why is time moving so quickly for her but dragging it’s butt for me? Have you ever felt like that? In the countless thoughts and moments and choices that happen on this journey, some days just seem longer and more gruelling than others. Of course, we know that time neither moves fast nor slow, and it certainly doesn’t have any attributes like “happy time, or stupid time, or boring time”, in fact time is painfully neutral, and it’s been ticking at the same tock forever and will continue to do so, no matter what we think about it. Yes, our head understands it and might even accept it, but our recovery doesn’t always remember. If this sounds like you, or if anxiety, boredom, fear, loneliness or something else has gripped you today, consider this: the sun will set once again and then it will rise again too.
I hope that doesn’t sound glib. Try this on for some comfort today. You might even say it out loud and let the message settle in.
The sun will set on this day.
No matter how hard this moment may be, it too will pass into the next moment
No matter what, the universe, our solar system, our planet, and I continue to spin forward
No matter what, I am never stuck because of this universal motion
No matter what, I can choose to stay in my day with the knowledge that this too will pass
No matter what, tomorrow morning this day will be behind me
No matter what, I am a part of today
No matter what, I matter to this day
And each day is still simply a moment in this time
Sometimes the gift of a long day means I’m closer to tomorrow
The sun will rise on a new day.
No matter what yesterday held, the sun has risen on this new day and so have I
No matter what, this new day shows that I successfully lived yesterday
No matter what today is a new day
I celebrate the sunsets of yesterday and I welcome the sunrise of tomorrow
No matter who I am, how I am, or what I do, each day holds possibility for me
Each day is no more precious than the previous or the next because each day reliably closes and opens for me.
Each day is my new day.
Each day I can celebrate yesterday.
No matter what, the sun will rise for me and I am gifted with that knowingness
There are days that will seem longer than the last, harder than before and more challenging than you predicted. There will also be days of laughter and discovery and peace. Each day moves with the same timing as yesterday and you can rest in that. Recovery asks that you honour the unfolding of it all and this post invites you to remember the daily gift of a sunrise and sunset. They can act as celebratory curtains to open and close your day.