Stigma represents all the layers of my journey - long term recovery, sobriety itself, getting sober in the beginning, and the time spent in the throes of addiction. During the time I was deep in alcohol abuse, the stigma was easy to see - others may have wanted to help, but they were fundamentally powerless to make those changes for someone else. In the initial days of early sobriety/recovery, it feels like the stereotype that comes with substance abuse gets pulled away as the pages in life turn. Then, ironically enough, it resurfaces as more time spent in sobriety comes and you start to open up about your experiences. It's a challenging pendulum to swing on sometimes - going between the knowledge that stigma will always follow me to some degree, while also using it as motivation to stay true to myself & take it one day at a time. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Some days it serves as a badge of honor, and other days it serves as a source of disgrace….

 I’m reminded, thinking on the stigmas of addiction & recovery, of how ashamed I was in those early days. No one knew I had stopped; no one knew what happened the morning I chose to stop and face it. 

 And no one certainly had any idea within those first two weeks how ruthless withdrawal was.
 ….and at the time, the shame was so heavy that I couldn’t bear to do anything other than keep it to myself.

 Uncontrolled twitching in my body, sleepless nights, the anger, the fear, and only clinging onto hope was those first two weeks.

And in those first few months, it was naive to think a stigma wouldn’t follow after those early days.
 ….and it was also naive to think one didn’t exist within me beforehand.

 It’s the unspoken components - everyone knows, and everyone acknowledges it when you’re in it….
 …but no one can change it for you…
 …and only when you start to get out of it do you realize the stigma actually follows you, and it may never be separate from who you are as a person.

 It’s made me realize that I have to accept it, embrace it, and remind myself of it as part of continuing on the journey.

The stigma will be there - whether I’m in it, going through it, coming out of it, or spend the rest of my time in this experience never using it again. It’s up to me to use it wisely." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Use of this token and its associated image: - Can be used in private, public, commercial, non-commercial settings for display purposes only - The holder is free to display as they choose in places like social gatherings, at home, etc. - The creator can license the image, and/or sell physical prints, of the image - Any revenue generating actions from commercial use are limited to only the creator ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ‘Book iii - Limen’ ‘Limen’ - a threshold or border between one thing and another…. Bridging thresholds & borders, transitioning from one to another, being in an in-between state…all of these represent the Latin word Limen, serving as the title of my third book & collection of aurora images on Ethereum. Being in-between one state and another has always been symbolic for me when chasing the aurora, especially since my sobriety journey is deeply rooted in it. I’m somewhere between short term and long term recovery now, with six years under my belt, and still navigating highs & lows that come with the journey. I’m also in a period of transition with getting back to chasing. The last three winters saw an unreliable car stay unreliable, and financial challenges from my time in addiction needed to be addressed. I chose to consciously focus on the priorities of paying down some debt, while working toward a new to me car, and grieving family members that passed on during that time as well. In those couple of winters that I couldn’t chase, I learned a ton about myself as my recovery continues. I’ve been there for others in their darkest hours, had some pretty dark moments myself, and discovered the importance of active amends…. …which brings me to an in-between state, fitting for my third book, ‘Limen.’ I want to stay open, vulnerable, and continue building on the provenance established in 2021 with my first collection (Book I - Expressions of Presence). I also want to keep exploring the highs, lows, and everything in-between through the writing that accompanies the images. Covering things like incidentally remembering the feelings of withdrawal, secondary trauma, stigmas of addiction, and the unknowns of the long term are all pieces of my journey that I want to share. Fundamentally, I strive to share the experiences and journey in hopes that others may find connection, meaning, or solace in them in a meaningful way.