Literally Written in the Sky

Vol. 11: A Weekly Love Note

Well hello lovely reader! It’s me, your faithful messy bun wearing weekly writer, Jess. For those of you new around here - it’s my mission to slip a little note your way every week, filled with topics related to embracing a sober lifestyle, motherhood, running, God, homeschooling, and more!

Decidedly Dry is a free weekly newsletter. If you absolutely love reading it and want access to a library of archived posts, additional tips and tools, and more, consider being a paid subscriber. You can also share snippets of today’s note from Jess on social media, forward it to someone who might benefit, or text it to a friend. Thanks again for being here.

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Friends! I did it. Another full year without a sip of alcohol.

This week I celebrated my 4 years!

Every time I approach a milestone, I spend a good amount of time thinking about my journey. I reflect on where I started, where I’ve been, and of course, what’s next.

Year One? Not gonna lie, it was pure survival. Surviving all the firsts and learning to stay firm in my decision.

Year Two? Service. I started to see how much it helped my own journey, by helping others explore theirs. I created the Decidedly Dry journal, sold hundreds across the country, and ended up having to move it over to Amazon to make my life easier. I volunteered my time and led meetings for different sobriety programs, which resulted in many beautiful, strong relationships with other sober curious women.

Year Three? Growth. I launched and grew Decidedly Dry to a Top 1.5% Globally Ranked Podcast and continued to serve those in the community.

Year Four? Discovery. Through this whole journey, I think I can confidently say that this past year was when I really dug deep. I found God, prioritized family, and am learning more than I’ve ever learned. Yes, partially because I’m homeschooling - y’all the Civil War is fascinating!

Speaking of fascinating - to celebrate my 4 year milestone, I laced up and decided I was going to run 4 miles. The purpose of the run was to honor my body, clear my head, and enjoy the fresh air. Around mile 2 when I flipped around, I looked up to the sky and literally stopped dead in my tracks.

No way.

I smiled, shook my head in awe, and quickly snapped a photo. A “4” literally written in the sky.

It instantly got me thinking on my trek home, that so often we miss things. We’re too busy, we’re always rushing, our head is down staring at our phone, and we’re just chronically distracted. We forget to LOOK UP.

Man, I’m so thankful I looked up to see this fiery, beautiful 4 staring back at me.

What an amazing reminder that if we slow down and keep our head up, we’re gonna notice things and truly be present in the moment. In my opinion, clouds are mysterious, yet marvelous. And seeing that FOURmation (see what I did there?!) kinda made me feel like God was closer than I ever imagined.

Like He was saying, “Jess, you’re doing it.”

I’m living proof folks that you absolutely CAN achieve what you set your mind to, no matter what it is. If it’s your relationship with alcohol, with food, shopping, social media, a toxic relationship, a job you hate, your road rage, your temper… whatever it is that you so desperately want to change, I’m here to tell you that you can do it.

The reason I celebrate these milestones is because it marks the day that I started keeping a promise to myself. I made a commitment to do better, to be better. To believe in myself and know that this one change was going to have a ripple effect. And boy did it ever.

So friend, I have a question for you: What’s your one thing, you know, the one thing that if you changed and/or removed, you’d see a big, beautiful, massive, POSITIVE impact on your life and those around you?

Sending you big monster hugs,

Jess

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Newest Episode on Decidedly Dry:

Episode #84: Coping with Loss as an Alcohol-Free 20-Something Guy w/Greyson Pihas

The latest episode is very special to me for many reasons and you'll soon find out why. Recently I had this lightbulb moment when I realized I was doing a little bit of a disservice with this ever-growing show of mine, by not including the “dudes” in the conversation. So, I reached out to my very dear friend Greyson Pihas to start us off.

Greyson is a 4th year Psychology student at Arizona State, who will soon be attending George Fox University (here in Oregon) to get his master's in counseling. In his free time, Grey loves exploring things like music, creativity, athletics and health, while maintaining relationships with those around him.

Greyson and I hit on some pretty big topics such as; what it’s like to be living as someone who has never had a sip of alcohol; how habits, goals and other healthy hobbies can be life-giving substitutions for alcohol; and how to continue to stay alcohol-free while coping with enormous grief.

I truly loved our chat and was so impressed with his vulnerability and openness. I know his Mom, Heidi, was looking down on us while we spoke and must have had her big, beautiful smile spread across her face as Greyson shared his story. We miss and love you dearly, Heidi.

I hope you'll take the time to push play on this one.

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This weekly newsletter and podcast is a free offering from my Substack newsletter, Decidedly Dry. There’s an option for you to purchase a subscription, which basically means you’re interested in supporting me and my work with your dollars. A paid subscription also means you’ll have access to different features beyond my weekly newsletter. Features *might* include: additional writings, bonus podcast episodes, resources, recipes, journal and doodle prompts, workout routines, etc. I’m not 100% sure yet and that’s what makes this kind of exciting. It allows me to experiment as I go and figure out how to build (what I hope to be) a long lasting, supportive, entertaining resource for you.

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One Last Thing…

I just want to take a minute and say thank you for sticking with me. If you’re receiving this email it’s because you’ve either purchased a journal, participated in a wellness challenge of mine, loved my content, purchased coaching, etc. No matter what it was, our paths crossed at some point and you’re still here. That means so much to me and YOU, my sweet friend, are the reason I continue doing what I do. Regardless of which you choose, free or paid, we’re still bff’s.

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