SOBER GRACE
We asked these sober individuals with different lengths of recovery time about the importance of gratitude in their lives and how that impacts their program of recovery
BY PAULO MURILLO
THE BEST VERSION
“Gratitude shows up in my sobriety by allowing me to take stock of how far I’ve come and how far I still have yet to go—to blossom into the best version of myself. I try to find any little thing in my day that I’m grateful for… Then there are the really big things like getting interviewed for a publication. I’ve never done anything like this before… Before I got sober, I probably took the little things for granted. Now I feel like I cherish the little things that happen in my life.”
—Stefan Peters, sober since September 26, 2018.
REALIZE THE GOOD
“Gratitude’s important to me, especially in my recovery, because I am an analytical person, so I’m looking for things to point out that are wrong to correct. Gratitude helps me realize the good things that are around me, so I don’t let the negative take over… If I forget to be grateful, I become Regina George. I become a mean girl. Burn Book and everything. I’m constantly fighting that because it’s a self-protection thing I created as a child, so gratitude is very important to me.”
—Hunter Dayton, sober since July 19, 2024.
THE LITTLE THINGS
“Gratitude shows up in my life now that I am a sober man through the little things. I’m grateful for my recovery and grateful for the influential sober people in my life, like my sponsor, my peers in sober living, and the community members in the meetings I go to… Every day, I’m grateful that I am breathing, that I have a healthy body and a healthy mind… I don’t think I really understood the concepts of true gratitude until I got sober.”
—Dominic Campos, sSober since May 11, 2026.
To learn more, visit thewhrc.org
THIS PAGE SPONSORED BY
