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Recovery52 – Year 2 Anniversary – A Photo Project: Two Years On
“Choosing sobriety opens the door to a journey of discovery: of self, purpose, and true freedom.”
Two years. It feels surreal to type those words, but here I am: two years sober. When I chose sobriety, I thought I was simply choosing to stop drinking. What I didn't realize was that I was opening the door to something much bigger—a journey of discovery: of self, purpose, and true freedom.
Recovery52 – Week 52 – A Finish Line
“It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.”
— Aristotle
My 52-week photography and recovery project is complete. I expected to write about the pride of reaching this milestone and the transition to a new photography project—topics I will return to shortly. But life had other plans, and recent events demanded attention first.
A projected winter storm arrived last Saturday morning. I shrugged off the warnings, thinking a couple of “snow days” might be relaxing—an excuse to slow down. The snow came, and at 11:49 a.m., the power went out. At first, it felt almost playful. I pulled out my flashlight and headlamp, bundled up, and let the child-like excitement settle in.
But the outage didn’t last a few hours—it lasted nearly five full days.
Recovery52 – Week 51 – Intent
“Always stay humble and kind.”
— Tim McGraw
In the fall of 2022, I experienced a series of relapses with alcohol. In mid-December, a close friend shared an observation that hit me hard: I had no plan and no goals. She asked what I wanted in life. I had no answer—no rebuttal, no excuses. Her question left me shaken, but at the time I wasn’t ready to face it or do the deeper work required.
I stumbled again just before the end of the year—a hard lapse, a blackout binge. On January 1st of 2023, I woke up miserable, hungover, ashamed, and exhausted by the pattern I kept repeating. That relapse didn’t help me answer what I wanted in life. Instead, as I sobered up, a much clearer question surfaced: “What do I not want in life?”
Recovery52 – Week 48 – Praise & Apologies
“Apologies aren’t meant to change the past, they are meant to change the future.”
— Kevin Hancock
Early in this project, while talking with a close friend about the emotional and physical traumas of my childhood, I shared a vow I made long before I had the words for it: I would never hit a woman or harm a child. Given what I had witnessed and endured, this vow felt like a core promise—a line I would never cross.
He responded with something that stayed with me: “You broke the cycle. You didn’t repeat the pattern.”