Checking in at eight months

I flipped over eight months of sobriety a couple days ago and wasn't even aware of it until I looked at my sobriety calculator app a couple days later.  Guess that's a good sign, my life is moving on and alcohol is becoming a speck in the rear view mirror.  Yes, vigilance in important, but life is getting easier as former triggers for alcohol craving (stress, loneliness, depression, etc.) are now addressed with alternative methods that are becoming somewhat routine (meditation, working out, journaling, etc.) and a natural part of my new life.  

But regardless of what occurs, I’ll never forget that I am truly powerless over alcohol and there is never any going back.  As noted in previous journal entries, the book "Alcohol Explained" by William Porter helped me understand more than any other resource the addiction process and how the subconcious of a recovering alcoholic will resume addictive behavior even after just one drink.  That is just not going to happen.

I've come to view alcohol as a poison, which in it's purist form it really is.  Manufacturers of beer, wine and spirits, as well as bartenders, do their magic in reducing and flavoring the final concoction to a non-lethal level, but where else would we intentionally ingest a poisonous substance?  Okay, chemotherapy perhaps, but when I had a vodka martini before sobriety I wasn't fighting cancer.

My greatest key learning in 8 months recovery?  Stay in the present moment, avoid too much regret of the past or concern for the future

What I need to continue to work on?  Humility and forgiving myself (ironic isn't it?)

What has been my greatest failing in recovery?  Taking things too personal