One Day at a Time

Fear is a time traveler. It pulls me into tomorrow where I rehearse disasters that haven't arrived — the phone call I'm dreading, the relapse I can't prevent, the future I can't guarantee. Regret drags me backward, replaying what I should have said, what I failed to stop, who I couldn't save. Between the two, I lose today entirely..

What frightens me most about staying in today is what it requires me to release. If I'm not planning for tomorrow's crisis, I have to trust that my Higher Power will meet me there when it comes. If I'm not punishing myself for yesterday, I have to accept that I did the best I could with what I had. Both feel like dangerous acts of faith.

But while I'm living in fear of tomorrow or shame over yesterday, today is happening without me. The meeting I could attend, the boundary I could set, the moment of peace available right now — all missed because I'm somewhere else in my mind.

Recovery happens today. Not in the future I'm bracing for. Not in the past I'm grieving. Here. Now. In what's actually in front of me.

When I catch myself rehearsing the future or replaying the past, I can stop and ask — what is my Higher Power asking of me right now?