It’s a beautiful day to be mindful, present, and grateful. IWNDWYT.

That sounds like an excellent day! Enjoy! IWNDWYT.

I also intensified existing hobbies.

Hiking went from a vacation or quarterly activity to several times per week. (Less now because of fatherhood.)

I returned to music and really doubled down on reading.

I picked up a couple of new hobbies: kayaking and spin bike.

And I started a business that’s been doing well for a few years and became a dad.

None of it would have happened without sobriety.

Damn. You described it so well.

Fridays in autumn, right at the time the setting sun is lighting up the night sky, is such a trigger for me. This time of year, it’s more like Fridays around 3, when the sun is shining and the trees are super green and robust. Idk – there’s something about the time and scenery associated with the pre-drinking routine that’s difficult.

But I’m starting to feel really settled into sobriety. It only took six years of stumbling!

Wrote some songs with my sober friends yesterday afternoon and evening. Then came home and hung out with my wife while our baby slept peacefully upstairs.

That’s a way better Friday than I ever had in the drinking days.

Agreed. Sometimes fiction reflects reality very well, in its own unique way. I used to be a journalist, and I recall some of my colleagues wondering whether they could do more good by moving to fiction and taking on larger issues in that medium.