Stick a Fork In Me – I’m DONE!
October marks the “Arts and Music in Recovery” month here on our Heroes in Recovery page, as October is the ‘ National Arts & Humanities Month’ (NAHM), a coast-to-coast collective recognition of the importance of culture in America. It should encourage all people in the USA to explore, discover, participate and celebrate arts and humanities in their lives, and to begin a habit of active participation in the arts. Now, someone who thinks of the arts as visiting incredibly boring museums they remember as a child should think a little out of the box. Art is more than this, it’s a form of creative conversation.
As the topic was “Arts & Music” it was totally clear for me that I will not harass you with my unfailing lack of musicality. If I start singing, most likely while sitting on my lawn mower, it is a great wildlife repellent, nothing more. I am sure even moles in my garden packed their bundle and moved out. My piano teacher as a teenager gave up on me after a half year, this was the hardest money he ever earned. But everybody can do some kind of art, since art is a wide range and you can find your specific talent or fate somewhere within. Please look at my photo. I just thought on how I can express the fun sentence used in recovery in a picture. I made a little sculpture and took a photo of it. Most people with substance use disorders are very creative and have visual memory skills. I just expressed my feeling of being done with alcohol and turned my life to recovery with simple tools and a camera. It was actually fun to do this picture and I smiled all the way setting it up. While doing it, even more thoughts entered my mind: Not only that I was done with alcoholic beverages and drugs and went into sobriety, I also changed my lifestyle and became more active and sportive, engaged in a healthy lifestyle. So my 6K medal is the driving force behind my fork, as my activity is one of the driving forces in my recovery. I used that little beer stein as I am mostly an alcoholic. For me running 6K beats having a beer today by lengths!
If I do a little photo set up like this one, I actively deal with my addiction and my recovery, which is beneficiary for my long-term sobriety. I should not forget about it and get complacent. While choosing the topic or the emotion I like to express, I am very mindful and live in the present, paying attention to my thoughts and feelings and validate them. I don’t have to be ashamed of sharing them with others through any art work. On a beautiful sunny morning, when I feel happy, grounded and content, I love to go through my yard or a park and take photos of flowers, as those photos express at this moment my feeling of beauty and peace, that is prevalent in my mind.
But a photo like this can do more. It can start a conversation with others and can inspire. Anything I do for myself, might have a positive effect on others. I can post this picture on my Facebook or Twitter, share it into groups and start to talk with people who respond to it. It’s just a photo, but it can turn into service work, if it reaches the right person. It can be therapeutic for the producer and for the receiver. Art should not be made to gain money or prestige in my opinion, then art turns into a commercial production and the artist most likely does what the people want to see instead of what he feels. Follow your dream of art, not your dream of wealth, when doing an art project. Then it can be authentic and something really speaking from you to others.
I chose “Stick a Fork in Me – I’m DONE” as a title, because this phrase had a very high impact on my recovery. I struggled with the concept of “One day at a time” at first. It was for me as if I was constantly lying to myself. One day is not good enough for me. If I don’t drink today, but I do drink tomorrow, all my efforts would be useless. I had to come to terms with the fact that, due to massive health issues, my drinking times are done; done for good, done forever. In the moment I finally made peace with this, which was one of the hardest things to do in my life, since my addiction keeps telling me “One won’t hurt”, I could look closer into the sentence “One day at a time” and I found for myself the explanation to work, “As long as I follow this way, I have nothing to fear. One day at a time.” I take the way and the fear one day at a time, but I accept to be done with my drinking. You can stick a fork in me!
Arts and music do not have to be done by famous people who earn their money with it or have incredible talent. It can be done by anybody who would like to express himself. Just be creative and think about ways to show your thoughts to others instead of writing them down. If you have any photo, drawing, painting, sculpture or anything else you made that expressed your feelings at this moment of your recovery, please post this photo under this article right here on the website. I would love to see your work of art. Nothing is too little, nothing is too crazy, just show it to us. We are all different, so is our way of expression and art. Take “being weird” as a compliment. Life would be boring if we would all be the same. Art does not have to be totally serious, it can be fun, let your fantasy play. And the best part is there is no such thing as bad art, it can only be different to someone’s way of understanding, but never bad. If you have not done anything yet, go wherever your imagination takes you and start a little arts project for yourself, the sky is the limit.
We do recover.
Susanne Johnson