Why Should I Be Realistic Right Now?

Dear Friend,

Over the weekend, I hit a low.

I felt overwhelmed and emotional. I felt hopelessness and sadness. I started worrying that perhaps I was completely delusional.

I questioned the reality of what I’m about to do.

I’m getting a van and driving around California on a mission to find brilliant women who are living extraordinary lives after seemingly hopeless addiction.

There’s no big team behind me, very little money, and I’m not even sure yet how I’m going to get a decent van.

It was that familiar small voice that loves to crush dreams.

Shouldn’t you be more sensible? Get a steady job? Be realistic?

Blah, blah, blah.

Then this morning, as I went to get my coffee, I noticed an article lying on the kitchen table. The headline was about drilling for oil in the North Sea.

And it hit me.

We live in a world where our insatiable appetite for more is ravaging the earth. Trees are being chopped down. Rivers are being poisoned. We are extracting and consuming and accumulating as though there is no tomorrow.

And somehow this is what we call being realistic.

And I thought:

Why on earth would I want to be realistic right now?

The way I see it, we need each other more than ever.

We need to love each other. We need to lift each other up.

Addiction has ravaged my own family. I have family members who are thriving in recovery, and I also have people I love who are still slowly killing themselves.

It’s heartbreaking.

And when I look out into the world, I see so many lonely people who need to know they are not alone.

We need more research into addiction so that more people can recover.

We need more light shone on recovery.

We need to address the shame and stigma that prevent people from asking for help.

And we desperately need to see what recovery can look like when it works.

So that’s why I must go on my mission around California looking for women who are magnifying the light. Inspiring women who have come through addiction and are now bringing something back to their families, their communities and the world.

I must find them.

We must celebrate them.

It’s high time people saw them and thought, Maybe that could be me.

Because this world is full to bursting with things that need our love, care and attention.

And I have decided that I would rather spend my precious life trying to elevate recovery than spend it safely on the sidelines being realistic.

I know I am delusional.

I know I may fail spectacularly.

And maybe I’ll get halfway across California and think, Oh Shit! I really didn’t think this through properly.

But I would rather risk all of that to help even one suffering person than play it safe and do nothing.

There are worse things than failing.

One of them is never finding out what might have happened if I’d followed the call.

Thank you for being here with me.

Love from Lizzie

I love you

I love you

I love you