Gratitude 2022

As we kick off the holiday season, Steve welcomes back past guests and listeners alike to share what they are grateful for this year!

I'm so thankful for all of you for listening! Happy Thanksgiving and Holidays!

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Transcript

Steve: 0:55

Hi everyone, and welcome to Gay, a podcast about sobriety for the LGBT plus community and our allies. I'm your host, Steve Benon Martin, and I am an alcoholic. As of this recording, I am 245 days sober, and today I've prepared a very special episode of Gay A for All of you. As you might notice, this episode is being released on Thanksgiving Day and as. Get through Thanksgiving. We have the upcoming holiday season of December, and I know between all these holidays, it can be difficult for many of us, so I reached out to our listeners and past guests and asked them to share what they are grateful for this year. I hope that by listening to these, you'll find a reminder or some inspiration of something that you're grateful for in your life this year that can help get you through those tough times. Enjoy.

Savanna: 1:46

Hi, my name is Savannah and I am an alcoholic, and today I just wanna say that I am so grateful for. So many things, like it's hard to try to pinpoint one thing exactly, but I am so grateful for the life that sobriety has given me. I'm thankful for the ability to be a greater mom, a better wife. I'm grateful for this opportunity that I have in nursing school. It's just amazing, and I wouldn't be able to do all this without my sobriety. So my thankfulness, my gratitude, and my everything comes from this program and so many, many, many, many souls that have helped me stay sober. Thanks.

Kristen: 2:35

Hey, I'm Kristin and I'm an alcoholic. And I have so much to be grateful for this year. First of all, I'm grateful for. My sobriety, which is I think the thing that is the foundation of all the other things that have come into my life that I can be grateful for. I'm grateful for all. The people that I've met through sobriety my sponsor, first of all my friends, including you, Steve my friends that I've met in aa, but also my friends and relationships with people who aren't in the program, but that I don't, that have changed or have deepened cause of sobriety. I have. New friends that I think I wouldn't have made or known if I'd just been out drinking and bonding with, only with people I met through drinking. I also have a really great relationship with my nieces. I see them once a week closer to my sister. My sister is the person. So I'm grateful for my relationship with, with my nieces and with my sister, just the person that, to whom I made my first amends. And I don't think our relationship would be anything like what it is now if I wasn't sober. I'm grateful for my apartment. In New York and the life that I've been building here, slowly with my cat and my desk and a kind of like very carefully and sort of painstakingly built routine I'm grateful for my routine. I'm grateful that I mostly wake up every day, know. What I'm gonna do and how I'm gonna do it. And there's just like a safety in that. And yeah, I think those, those are the main things. Yeah I'm grateful for a lot and I feel really lucky.

Michael: 4:36

I am Michael. I'm an alcoholic and an addict. I am grateful in sobriety for being able to take care of my dog, being able to sleep peacefully and without any substances, being able to go to therapy and work on myself, and being able to rebuild relationships with my friends and my family.

Wes: 5:45

Hey y'all. Wes here from Nashville, Tennessee. I am so, so thankful for three. 65 days of being sober. I just crossed the earmark and it feels wonderful. I'm thankful for the support I've had from friends and family. I'm thankful for people that are outta my life. I'm thankful for the great people in my life. I want everybody to be happy and be on their own journey, and for once in my life, I finally am being thankful for focusing on the little things, the wind, the rain, the sun, the air, my job, my car, my. Just being thankful to take all of society's pressures away and just live the way I wanna live and be thankful for those small things each and every day just to become 1% better every day. Some days it's not 1% better, but most days it is, and that's a win. I'm thankful, and I hope you are thankful and have an amazing Thanksgiving.

Sandy: 6:43

It's Sandy and I'm grateful for all of the people in my life and a higher power. Who keep me going.

J9: 6:57

Hey guys, this is J nine. I'm just popping in here to. Give some thanks for some of the themes that have been developing over the past year. I'd have to say family and community, friends, family, community friends, music learning, living loving. It's amazing what what things can become amplified when you are of clear mind all of the time. What's really important really shines through and it's funny how things that weren't so important when you're clear minded all the time, just kind of fade into the background. So, yeah. What's really shown through for me this year being sober? Friends, family, community. Yeah, everything. And that includes around music, living, learning, and loving Happy Thanksgiving.

Jo: 8:14

This year I'm super grateful for my family, mostly for my chosen family, but also for a couple of members from my family of origin who I would still choose to put in my real family. Um, it's been a huge year and so many people have stepped up to witness me, to support me, to cheer me on, to hold my hand. I'm super grateful for each and every one of. Each and every one of you happy Thanksgiving.

Gabriel: 8:46

My name is Gabriel and I am from San Diego, California. What I am grateful for this year are the friends and family that I have in recovery. During the beginning of the year, I had a lot of successes and wins, and at the end of the year or middle to the end of the year, I have struggled, and it is the people in recovery, the chosen family that I have, who didn't let me falter, who didn't let me. Who offered to take me to meetings, take me to get coffee, and who overall just didn't let me give up on myself. It reminded me how amazing I am and how much I deserve recovery. So absolutely 100% what I'm grateful for this year are my chosen family in recovery.

Robbie: 9:30

Hi, I'm Robbie this year. I am grateful for my continuous over one year of sobriety now finding peace and true happiness and a very loving, supportive relationship.

Brandy Jo: 9:46

My name is Brandy Joe. I am an addict and an alcoholic, and I'm fabulous, and this holiday season I am so grateful for sobriety. I'm so grateful to see the world through clear eyes and a clear mind. I am so very grateful for my friends and my husband and my family. I'm so grateful for my sobriety family, including Steven and the whole gay podcast, and everyone who's been on it and listened to it. I'm so grateful. I'm so grateful for the life I have today, which if you would've told me I could have had this. So many years ago, I would've been like, Okay, what do I gotta do? Because it's just it gets better and better. So if you're new in sobriety, keep going, keep going because it, it will happen. The miracles happen as they say. Keep coming back and just so grateful for you for listening. Thank you.

Mei: 10:43

Hi, my name is May McIntosh from the Creative Sober Podcast and community This year, I'm grateful for my friends and family and my third year in sobriety. The opportunities this year have allowed me to grow and heal from the wise I drink, and I'm able to stay sober through continued service in my community, staying connected with my support. Continuing to explore what lights me up creatively. Every day is a gift.

Steve: 11:13

Thank you to everyone who shared their gratitude. I am so grateful for all of you and for all of my listen. I'm not sure if I've discussed this before, but very early on in my sobriety, I was preparing for this podcast launch to come out on my 90 days and I was getting episodes ready and promoting things on social media, and about 60 days in, I got to a really tough time where I wasn't sure whether I'd be able to make it through. I was trying to figure out whether. It was all worth it, and a listener or a future listener reached out on Instagram and said that they found that the podcast was coming out sooner and how excited they were and how thankful that they were to have something like this for our community coming out in the near future. And it was that message that inspired me to keep on going and get through that tough. Since then, I've had many ups and downs in my sobriety, and almost every single time it is coincided with someone reaching out to me about this podcast or about my sobriety. That just reminds me exactly why it is that I'm doing this. And so I want to be the. Thankful for, and show gratitude for every listener, every Instagram follower, every fellow I've met in the rooms, every person that I've connected with through other guests, and just thank you all because it is by reaching out to me, that reminds me of why I'm doing this podcast and why I'm staying sober. So I am eternally thankful to each and every single one of. I am also very gra grateful for my husband who stayed with me through all my struggles. I'm grateful that today we have developed more of a partnership than before, where he was taking care of me or cleaning up my messes. I'm also grateful for my dog, Remy, who reminds me every day what unconditional love feels like and how important it is to laugh because he's such a goer. I'm also grateful for my friends and family along with the opportunity I had this year to make amends to them all while I worked through my ninth step. And speaking of steps, I'm grateful for my sponsor, Ken, who helped walk me through the steps and has changed my life for the better. And I'll wrap up my gratitude by sharing how thankful I am to all the fellows I've had along the. Before getting sober, my life was filled with more situation ships than relationships that were about what people can do for me or what I can get from them, and I rarely felt close to them. Now I have an entire phone filled with numbers and emails and Instagram handles of people who I care about and who care about me in return. And were there for each other, each. I find the sober queer community has some of the best people that I've ever met in my entire life, and I love you. So that's it for this episode. If you're interested in sharing your story as we get ready for the new year getting involved with the show or just saying hi, you can email me@gayapodcastgmail.com or find me on Instagram Gaya podcast. And be sure to follow us wherever you're listening so you can get new episodes when they come out every Thursday. Until next time, stay sober friends.