Silver - Echo and the Bunnymen

First Day Cover of the Rest of your Life...

Phew, I’ve finally made my ‘Silver Jubilee’ - the anniversary of my last alcoholic drink on the 4^thJanuary 1994. It’s so long ago, I can’t even tell you what the drink was - all I know is that the 5^thJanuary became the start of my alcohol abstinence.

‘Swung from a chandelier, my planet sweet on a silver salver’…

Thinking back, I swung from many a chandelier in my twenties and I must have thought I was living life at full throttle (what a twit). If you’ve been there yourself or are currently behaving in that manner right now, you’ll know the feeling only too well. The feeling of being ‘Out of control’ and that you are simply ‘Wasting your life’.

‘Bailed out my worst fears, ‘cos man has to be his own saviour’…

Those feelings became my biggest fears. Finding myself at the very edge of personal disaster and at a point of no return back then, shocked me into action. Now I find I’m just shocked at the ridiculous way I treated myself and those around me.

‘The sky is blue, my hands untied. A world that's true, through our clean eyes’…

That January day, my Sky did in fact turn Blue - a wonderfully deep Azure. The clearest Blue you could ever imagine and as if by magic my whole body felt untied and released from the self-imposed bindings of my alcohol addiction.

Seeing myself through ‘Clean Eyes’ really helped my recovery and gave me the direction and therapy I needed to enable me to live by a fresh set of positive ideals.

‘Just look at you with burning lips, you're living proof at my fingertips’…

Here I am, twenty-five years on and 9,130 days dry. Totally dry - not a single drop has passed my lips and since then all manner of life-celebrations and crises have been celebrated and negotiated without needing to ‘Have-a-drink’.

‘All the way, well-behaved. Just in case it slips away’…

Of course, it’s not my only accomplishment this past quarter-century. It is however, the one I most proud of and it will continue on its unbroken run for as long as I do. 

You never know I might even make a ‘Golden Jubilee’ - I know it will happen if I’m still around.

‘The sky is blue, my hands untied. A world that's true, through our clean eyes’…

Amen.

1,029 Lifetime Marathons, 250 ULTRA-marathons, 9 Guinness World Records, 

15 Marathon des Sables & 25 Years' Dry