6:03 am

Mornings are my favorite part of the day. All of the disappointments, inadvertent behavior and missteps of yesterday dissipated as I slept and I wake yet again to another opportunity to experience and thoroughly enjoy my life. I begin with a clean slate every day, a daily commemoration and celebration of Grace. The world is again brand-new. This is a daily experience for me and I love it. I value it greatly today because I used to wake up in an entirely differently way.

I spent almost 90% of my life waking up in fear every day. If I am graced to live to 94, I still will have woken up in a panic for 50% of my life. I just picked up where I left off when I went to sleep. That is what my addiction did to me, ultimately; it pilfered my hope from the get-go.

I cannot even begin to count the number of days that I had to wake up after I had just walked through the world as a wrecking ball the day before. I face dire consequences when I allowed King Alcohol to control by thoughts and actions. Waking up in jail after a DUI the night before is not the most enjoyable way to start your daily activities. Waking up on the day of your bankruptcy hearing isn’t a lot of fun, either. Waking up on a day I had to deal with the IRS was always a crap way to start. Waking up on a day I had a massive hangover was the worst.

This is probably the biggest reason that I endeavor so fervently to not make a colossal mistake today because I don’t want to wake up to its aftermath tomorrow. For a small but growing number of years now, I haven’t had to do that anymore. And boy do I like that!

We over-complicate life. We are the ones that put the pressure on us to fix everything. We are the ones that are bothered because we don’t understand everything or nothing is going the way that we want it to. If it weren’t for hope, we wouldn’t even get out of bed. That’s what mornings are for me, new hope.

I use my morning time constructively. I immediately thank God for another day, all He does and all He doesn’t do. I am immediately grateful that despite all the past mistakes that I have made, I am no longer destined to repeat them today. Whatever doesn’t go my way today is still going to be better than what didn’t go my way yesterday. This generates an enthusiasm and thirst for better outcomes. Today, all things are possible.

It is my hope that whether you are a morning person or a night owl, you take a piece of time every day to reinvigorate your hope. You can have your morning whenever you want. How lucky is that?

Thank you
Jim

James A. Francetich is a freelance writer and author. The opinions expressed are solely of the author and do not represent any community based recovery programs, private or public entities or any governmental agencies.