I’Ll Have Mine Straight Up: Still Counting My Blessings Every Day

By Heidi Heath Garwood

ELEVEN YEARS

Shhhhh! Enough on the years. I am not collecting years, just days. 4017 days on my sobriety birthday, July 12, 2015.

Last time I checked, we are all on the same day

Today.

This year leading up to my sobriety birthday in July looked strangely like the six months leading up to the day I stopped drinking. From January to July in 2004, I was not sober much of the time.

We received the news this year that my husband had a rare form of thyroid cancer requiring surgery and two types of radiation. During that same time, my mother died suddenly of a heart attack. I went through the loss of several other friends and their memorials tightly packed together right after my moms deaththen recently, my only nieces death.

The difference?

I didnt drink through any of what has happened this year.

There is nothing in this life that we can experience that a drink wont make worse.

Walking through the emotions of it all is hard. People said I would feel better when I got sober.

Yes, I am feeling my feelings better because I am present. Stuffing the feelings by drinking was keeping me in denial and stuck. I feel better because I am not checking out. Feelings are not facts. The feelings pass. Growth happens. I can move on and live.

Now, I am living all of this life straight up!

You can too. I pray that for you.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Sep 29, 2016
• ISBN: 9781512757828

Heidi Heath Garwood

“My name is Heidi. I am an alcoholic in recovery.” That is how I introduce myself now. Although I don’t drink anymore, the disease of addiction needs to be addressed and treated daily with a commitment to telling the truth and staying connected to God and to others like myself. Writing these books began as a strong call from God to write them to help others. These are simple realizations coupled with my photography and meant for alcoholics and addicts to identify with and to relate to, thoughts to read and for them to consider and to know that they are not alone on this road to recovery. These books are fifteen-minute reads—fifteen thoughts, fifteen photos. I realized in my own early recovery that this was the short information-receiving window I had! As a transformed woman with 4,378 days of sobriety (12 years), I know that I could not do this without God. Period. I would not bet on anyone staying sober without getting the concept of surrender to God. I am forever grateful for God speaking through me with these simple reads. People have told me they have given these books to someone who was “thinking” about getting sober but could not do it before this. They have come back to me and told me about the miracles of these gentle messages being received by their loved ones and them deciding to get sober. My husband, Dick, and I live on the coast of California in a sweet little town called Aptos. He is a retired dentist. I have had my own graphic design business, Heath Design, serving the Silicon Valley high-tech industry for over thirty-five years. I didn’t start writing until after I got sober in 2004, three days before my fiftieth birthday. I never felt compelled to write before that. My other great joy is being a watercolor dog portrait artist. I love to capture the love shared between the dog and their owner through portraiture. I am totally committed to God and to my sobriety. My prayer is to give back through these books what was so freely given to me.

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Copyright © 2016 Heidi Heath Garwood.

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-5781-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-5782-8 (e)

WestBow Press rev. date: 9/29/2016

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I’LL HAVE MINE STRAIGHT UP

Still Counting My Blessings Every Day

HEIDI HEATH GARWOOD

Contents

I’LL HAVE