On July 4th our nation celebrates its birthday. We trace our birth to the Declaration of Independence which was dated July 4, 1776.
However, for those of us in recovery, freedom has taken on a deeper and more personal meaning. We know the bondage that comes from our shared disease and in our recovery we have found "a new freedom and a new happiness." We know the prison of isolation that our disease condemned us to. And in our recovery we have been granted a full pardon from the loneliness, remorse and regret that is associated with substance use disorder.
Although historians disagree as to who actually first uttered these words, they are often credited to Thomas Jefferson, "The price of freedom is constant vigilance". Another way of saying this is, "With recovery comes freedom and with freedom comes responsibility."
The responsibility is to "Give back freely, that which was given to us." Or, as another author stated hundreds of years ago, "To those that much has been given, much will be asked."