If you’d prefer to watch this reflection, the YouTube version is linked at the bottom of this post.
This weekend, we turned our clocks back. Just one hour — a small shift in time that somehow feels bigger. The sun sets earlier, the days grow shorter, and we find ourselves glancing back at how quickly time moves.
For me, it’s been a full and fast-moving 2025 — two weddings (my daughter’s and my own!), selling a house, moving into a new one, retiring, and going back to school, along with camping trips with my wife, solo backpacking adventures, and launching Awakening With Don. As the year turns toward winter, I’m also looking forward to one of life’s greatest gifts — becoming a grandpa in December. With so much change packed into a single year, it’s easy to feel like life’s been in constant motion.
In recovery — and in life — there’s value in looking back. Like driving, I need to occasionally glance in that rearview mirror — not to relive what’s behind me, but to remember how far I’ve come and stay aware of what’s shaped me. Reflection helps us learn, but if I stare solely in the rearview mirror, not only am I missing what’s in front of me — the drive isn’t going to turn out so well.
There was a time when I looked backward too often — replaying the personal and professional consequences of my active alcoholism, and every life I unintentionally harmed along the way. I could see every wrong turn, every missed exit, every bridge I’d burned. But no amount of staring in the mirror could change those things. What helped was learning to take one honest look, learn what I could so I could avoid repeating them, and then bring my eyes back to the road ahead.
When the light fades earlier each evening, it can feel like something’s slipping away. But maybe these darker days are an invitation — not to cling to what shines or push away what’s shadowed, but to notice what’s still here: the warmth of a lamp, the quiet of evening, the chance to slow down, listen, and be present to what is.
We can’t rewrite what’s behind us. But we can live differently because of it. We can let reflection become compassion, and compassion become acceptance. And every time we return our focus to the road ahead — one mindful mile, one clear breath at a time — we move forward a little lighter, a little freer, and a little more awake.
🎥 Watch the video version on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/FwYYXO3gV3c?si=ZvtvNdBktzC47au5
