The reason that won today's battle

In spite of the many reasons I have to continue to avoid drinking, I had to wrestle with the emotional/addictive voice today. None of the reasons I had seemed to be enough to shut that voice up, until one rose to the top.

The validity of that reason can be seen in this post: a "recovery timeline." https://www.reddit.com/r/stopdrinking/comments/2sf5jm/my_attempt_at_an_alcohol_recovery_timeline/

With this in mind, if I gave in to the drink, I might never know what long term sobriety is like. I might never get the chance to see what life is like not being compromised by a self-destructive addiction.

And, as harsh as it is, if my past is any indication of my future, then my reaching at least a year of sustained sobriety is actually against the odds.

Therefore, the consequences of picking up today extend far beyond the acute hangover and however long it takes after that to get back to my current number of clean days. So my reason for choosing sobriety today is not for today, though I will benefit today. It's not even for tomorrow, though I undoubtedly will benefit. It's for some day I can't even conceive of just yet, but some day I'm quite likely to reach. I can reach that day with many days of sobriety behind me, or reach it having made no progress.

Today is already slipping away like grains of sand in the hourglass, and tomorrow is advancing just as quickly. I'm more interested in a sober future than a drunken today.