As my alarm went off this morning I did what I typically do: ignored it. In truth, I didn’t exactly ignore it. What actually happened was that when my brain heard the noise it repurposed it into something that made sense. I was in the midst of a dream and the noise was strange. My brain took that strange input and twisted into something that worked for its own particular worldview. It distorted the truth to match its point of view.

That might not seem all that incredible or shocking, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized how this is a dangerous ability that we all have. It’s one thing to do it while I sleep, but how often to I shift the facts in order to make them fit my opinion rather than shifting my opinion to fit the facts? This is the basis for denial and addiction. I need to be more aware of how I do this throughout my day. I can do that by talking to my accountability partners, my Forever Family, and my Sponsor. I need to keep a proper perspective on life in order to keep my sobriety. It’s fine to do funky things with reality while I’m dreaming, but that weird sound isn’t a car horn in my dream, it’s my alarm clock telling me to…

–Rise Up!!