Beyond Custody in Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 open.substack.com/pub/anders…

After 12 years sober, I realised I’d never actually experienced my natural emotional baseline as an adult. First alcohol shaped my thinking. Then antidepressants. This isn’t an anti-medication piece — it’s an honest reflection on recovery and emotion. open.substack.com/pub/anders…

Reflection on place: open.substack.com/pub/anders…

Saw Karine Polwart’s Windblown in Perth tonight and haven’t stopped thinking about it since. Watching it through the lens of recovery work, made me think.. substack.com/@andersonrjm/no…

The most damaging position I can hold as an ex problem drinker and drug addict, is one of judgement and contempt towards the still struggling addict and alcoholic We don't shoot our wounded

Get out and Vote 🗳️ whatever your flavour!

There are two Texel ewes that share Keith's field in summer. They are not Keith's ewes. They are not part of any active breeding plan. They are two retired ewes that the farmer's wife took on from a flock dispersal in 2023, and that have been living on the bottom pasture of Dave's farm because the bottom pasture is, after Keith has worked it, in better condition for grazing than it has been in any of the previous tenancies the farm has known. The ewes' names are Pat and Margaret. Keith's relationship with Pat and Margaret is the following. He ignores them. Specifically, he ignores them in the way that a goat ignores sheep, which is not the way that, for example, a sheep ignores another sheep, or that a horse ignores a sheep, or that any other animal on this farm ignores any other animal. Keith's ignoring is structural. It is not absent-minded. He is aware of where Pat and Margaret are at all times. He simply does not allow this awareness to influence his behaviour. Pat and Margaret are also aware of where Keith is at all times. They have, however, learned to follow Keith. Not closely. Not in any way that Keith has acknowledged. But when Keith opens a gate, Pat and Margaret are, on average, through it within four minutes. When Keith identifies a section of bramble that is going to be addressed, Pat and Margaret are nearby within ten. When Keith is on the barn roof, Pat and Margaret are usually in the shade of the barn, looking up at him with the specific patient expression of two old sheep who have decided that whatever the goat is doing is, on balance, probably worth being near. Dave has noticed. Dave has not mentioned it to Keith, because Keith would deny it. Dave has also noticed that Pat and Margaret have, in their last two years on this farm, lambed at a rate that the previous flock-keeper would have considered impossible for ewes their age, eaten weeds they had not previously touched, and produced fleece that the local mill paid more for than any of their previous fleeces. The ewes have got better. The ewes have got better because they have been doing what the goat does. The goat does not know they have been doing what the goat does. This is, in agricultural terms, a mixed grazing system. It is one of the oldest systems known to British farming. Cattle, sheep, and goats together, sharing pasture, each handling the vegetation the others won't touch, parasites broken up by interspecies grazing, the field improving over years rather than declining over months. The system was lost when farms specialised after the war. Dave did not set out to recreate it. Dave bought a goat for the knotweed. The system has reassembled itself. Pat and Margaret are at the gate. Keith is on the roof. The pasture is the best it has ever been.

One of the saddest and loneliest walks you will ever do is that from the vets when your dog has been put to sleep. RIP Susie, the dog who came for Christmas and stayed. She was 19 ❤️

Quitting alcohol might look boring initially. Until you see what it builds.

What he said 🫶🏻

We’ve built @BordersRecovers from scratch, a handful of #heros creating a safe space for people to recover. We’re now a 7 day a week community across our region, recovery cafes, SMART recovery meetings, MuayThai, outdoors, creative activities, family meals, women’s groups. #Proud

Another day #sober another day staying out of my comfort zone #recovery

Do you remember when you joined X? I do! #MyXAnniversary

Congratulations on 1 year of sobriety to Dominique! 🎉 “After years of starting over, chronic relapse, slips ups, this time it stuck! Cheers to 1 year! I used to feel this “terminally unique” sense of emptiness… and the truth is, the blessings to fulfill mewere always there. I just couldn’t see them through the fog. Even through the happiest moments of my life, I was simply surviving… disconnected from everything, even myself. Now I live with intention. I appreciate the small things. I feel present in my own life. What once felt out of reach is now something I live in every day: peace, clarity, more than everything else gratitude. Tiktok for relatable sobriety content: @dsobergirlie”

SOBER IS NOT A PUNISHMENT. IT’S A PROMOTION.

Stay patient, stay sober. It's unlocking doors you can't see yet.

7 AM: 3 Bud Ice.
11:30 AM: Smirnoff in a foam cup, driving to work.
2 PM: Break time, 2 more Bud Ice.
Clock out, hit the closest store for a road beer, then the liquor store for litter of vodka. Just another Tuesday of my alcoholism. Now I’m sober. If I can do it, so can you.