We Do Recover

A heroin junkie no more, a raging alcoholic no more, and honoring my soul sister, Chelsea, on 14 YEARS OF SOBRIETY.

November represents some of the most life changing events, that are all too easy to forget or become numb to in the noise of the world.

I’ll start with the lighter stuff.

**For those who want to skip straight to the podcast episode, scroll to the bottom of this post***

In 2009, my soul sister

Radha Geet

got sober on November 1st. By the time November 27th came around, I also got sober.

We have both remained sober to this day.

November represents 14 years of sobriety for us, and TODAY, NOVEMBER 1ST, IS CHELSEAS 14 YEARS!!

Radha Geet

, today is your day. I do not celebrate until the 27th, but November is still November, and it is worth discussing because anyone who has gotten sober knows the dark reality of watching the majority of the people you know and love relapse and die. Very few, if any, will be left out of who you started with.

But

Radha Geet

, AKA Chelsea, is one of those people. She is also one of the greatest friends I have ever had in my life. We did not know each other when we were in our active addictions, but we met shortly after we both got sober, and the fact that we are both not only still alive, but as close as we are, is one of the greatest blessings I’ve known.

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November is also one of remembrance.

Cory Adams, someone we both got sober with, passed away in November of 2011, on the 17th. This would be the first of many deaths that would come from our comrades in recovery…but that was the first time I have seen Death level an entire community.

It gave everyone a serious head check. Immediately.

It’s so easy to forget the teachings of Death. That the only thing that matters is love, everything else is noise.

It is so easy to forget how fragile and finite our existences in these bodies are.

It is so easy to forget that you do not get a warning when your last moment with (insert persons name here that you care about) will be.

And this applies to every single one of us.

Certainly no reason to be morbid. Certainly, a reason to celebrate. Certainly, a reason to take as many pictures as possible.

It is all you will have left one day.

Certainly, a reason to give thanks for all that is, and all that has been, and all that will be.

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So in celebrating life and death… it’s an interesting month.

What I intend to do with this article is share a podcast Chelsea and I did last year when we hit 13 years.

We recorded this from my apartment in Tennessee when she came to visit me when I was performing at the Self Reliance Festival in Camden.

I don’t remember what we said. But if it helps someone else, because I know we shared the “why, how, and now” aspect of our journeys, then that is 1000% the whole point of living to tell the tale.

If there’s one thing I could do with life… it would be to remove everyones fear of giving and receiving love. Tall fuckin order.

So second to that would be preventing unnecessary deaths via suicide & drug overdose.

The amount of death I see due to drug overdoses and suicide (all ties back to trauma & disconnection - canaries in the coal mine for a chronically disconnected society) is fucking unbelievable. And I know it can be prevented. No one quite knows how to heal though, so we are all collectively learning right now.

Whatever work we do for ourselves, we are also doing for one another. Don’t ever think healing yourself isn’t an act of revolution — that’s literally the foundation of it.

Chelsea, I love you, happy fucking 14 years of sobriety. We’ll do another pod once things settle in the huge transitions both of us are making in life right now. Thank you for being brave enough to choose life, even when it is unbearable. And thank you for being there for me during some of the darkest moments I’ve had, for introducing me to Kundalini Yoga, for talking me off the ledge so many times, and for just letting me cry when words would do no justice. Thank you for understanding things that no one else does.

Thank you for never giving up on yourself, and thank you for remembering YOUR divinity. You are a signal to the rest of us to remember ours.

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THE ANTIDOTE TO ADDICTION IS CONNECTION.

THE WAY TO BREAK THE CYCLE IS TO ASK FOR HELP.

There is nothing more important than honesty when dealing with an affliction rooted in delusion —- how we lie to ourselves. All other lies, torture and hell spring forth from that.

Being sober sounded like a death sentence. Even just being “moderately high” on heroin was uncomfortable. The only way to feel okay was to be unconscious. It’s funny to me now…. because sobriety is the best thing that has ever happened to me, because from that, I got to actually have a life… and it’s worth living. Or I wouldn’t still be here.

May anyone struggling with ANYTHING be granted the same opportunity and freedom. May you know Love.

Me, Cory Adams, and Mackenzie, 2010. ♥️

Chelsea and Cory Adams, 2011. ♥️