Blog for January 5th, 2026
The more things change……
There’s an old saying “the more things change, the more they remain the same.” And every once in a while, I get to see that phenomena play out in life. As I did this past week. Let me start with what I consider the worst of the week. I may have mentioned last week that my grandson is here for the holiday break, the one that lived with us for eight years due to my son and his wife being such a mess on drugs. My son is doing much better, but the boy’s mom is still on the streets, it is sad and painful.
So here he is, and I love and adore him so much, my beautiful grandson. He has a great personality, he is tall, handsome and bright. But this last week I found his pipe with pot in it and whereas I’m not freaked out, because it seems to be the thing all our kids have done, I just don’t want that for him. Plus, everyone in the world knows not to bring any kind of substance into this house. Yesterday my Love celebrated forty-one years clean and being clean and in recovery is just our way of life. It’s who we are. So, any kind of drugs or paraphernalia is out of the question in this house!
I didn’t flip out or anything, but I’m concerned, because he has been flunking classes, experiencing depression and anxiety and general lack of willingness to do anything but stay on his phone! Humm, sounds familiar. We have been here before, more times than I care to count. I am most concerned about the lack of motivation that smoking pot causes.
As I said, yesterday was my husband’s forty-one years clean, it wasn’t a big hoopla, we did that last year for his fortieth, but it was a celebratory time nonetheless. It was more down low, and sweet than anything. A couple of his guys and us had a nice dinner and then went to a meeting where one of his sponsee’s gave him a cake, and I gave him a 41 year medallion. I am so proud of him and love him so very much. He had to keep a mask on and his oxygen. But he went, rain, fog and all. He is amazing. Always has been.
That’s why I say, the more time he gets, the more amazing he is. Even though time can change things, like, how long he’s been clean, it still remains that he is indeed clean and in recovery. Likewise, the more our kids and grandkids grow and change, the more they act like every other teenager and addict in our family. I swear, this disease of addiction will never end, not in our family, not on this planet, not in our lifetime. I get sick and tired of it. I’ve watched drugs take out so many people I love and care about.
I know that this one little pipe with his pot in it doesn’t seem like a big deal, and at the risk of sounding like a “don’t do drugs” commercial, that’s where it starts. That’s where I started and my husband too. Maybe with some alcohol mixed in as well with smoking pot. Nice, mellow, easy and before you know it, we’re doing more and more kinds of drugs and turn into little but heads! Then big butt heads! We don’t care about school, family, working or doing anything but having a party, everyday!
For an addict, a person who has obsessive-compulsive-disorder, (OCD) and an addictive personality, then we’re off to the races. I look back and think of all the time and life I wasted being wasted. It makes me sad and mad. I am so grateful to be clean and in recovery these past forty years, and I wish I could transmit this knowledge to my kids and grandkids and others. It truly serves no good purpose in my life, or this world. But you couldn’t have convinced me of that then. As a teenager, I knew everything! Lol.
Meanwhile, we did welcome the new year, 2026 and I am so grateful that we made it, that my husband starts us off with his clean time celebration and we have so much to look forward to this year. I think I will call it the year of finishing. I have a few projects that I need to finish. I will totally set my mind to it. But, heck, I did a lot of completion in 2025 too, so I will just keep the momentum going. The more I do it, the more I want to do it. The more I change things, the more I want to keep doing the same. I sure hope that makes sense.
One thing I’m going to keep doing is to “keep coming back” as we say in the fellowship. If what I am doing is working and helping me stay clean, then why stop? If it works, don’t fix it right? Therefore, that is another case of things staying the same (going to meetings and working steps) in order to continue to grow and change.
No matter what your plans are for the year of 2026, I hope all your dreams and goals are realized and you can stay clean and grow in your recovery. So, no matter what, keep coming back, Happy New Year! God Bless.
Question of the Week: Do you ever notice that the more things change, the more they remain the same?
