Why I don’t call myself an alcoholic
I used to be a smoker. I smoked a pack a day for roughly ten years. I started buying brands with lower and lower tar and nicotine levels to try to minimize my addiction and the pain I felt in my lungs. The discomfort was especially bad the day after having consumed some speedy narcotic because I would end up smoking twice as much. The last couple of years that I smoked, I hated it. I tried to cut back, but the nicotine and routine of smoking had me chained to cigarettes. I had to have two on the way to work, two or three smoke breaks during work, two more at lunch, and so on. I was always self-conscious about how I smelled and hated the taste it left in my mouth. But despite all the things I disliked about it, I still couldn’t shake it. I thought it would be something I’d have to deal with for the rest of my life.
Living with a Sense of Urgency and Purpose
You live as if you were destined to live forever, no thought of your frailty ever enters your head, of how much time has already gone by you take no heed. You squander time as if you drew from a full and abundant supply, though all the while that day which you bestow on some person or thing is perhaps your last.
Living with Gratitude
Practicing gratitude and awareness of even the most minor pleasures, acts of kindness, and conveniences is grounding. It is the foundation for building a better self and stronger relationships.
