Congratulations Pat, and to your husband too! It's great to see Rose and her husband at 83 and 82 days too, letting you both know that this is entirely do-able. But as Marty points out (hello Marty!!) it really is important that all quitting friends and partners see your recoveries as standing on their own, and enduring regardless of ongoing success of others, including a friend or significant other. image

While wonderful if both can make it here to Easy Street to together relish inside quiet minds where an amazing sense of calm once again rules supreme, in relationships where both smoke, someone (again, hopefully both) has to blaze a trail and show the other the beauty and glory of seeing the distance between challenge increase to the point where when a thought does at last arrive it gets smiled or laughed at, as a fading reminder of the amazing journey we once made.

For in a relationship where both are dependent upon nicotine, if addiction to smoking it has a 50% kill rate among adult smokers, what are the odds it won't be the reason a relationship ends where neither takes the lead and quits?

I wish there was some way to allow all of new arrivals feeling challenged or experiencing substantial addiction chatter to take a short rest inside the mind of any of the hundreds of millions of comfortable ex-smokers for whom thoughts and urges have grown rare. To actually see and feel where this temporary period of re-adjustment leads, now wouldn't that piece of mind be valuable! But we can't. Instead, 100% of the glory will be yours!

Congratulations to you too, Patricia, as you prepare to celebrate your first full month of freedom, and you Julia on your second season of healing! Remember, there was always only one rule ... no nicotine today! We're with you each in spirit!

Breathe deep, hug hard, live long,

John (Gold x9)

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