Drinking is not a problem until it begins to affect your relationship. Only you can determine if your alcohol romance is interfering with your partnership. The drinker must want to change, or not. The codependent non-drinker cannot wait around for the drinker to change. The people in relationships with drinkers, need to find their own comfort, their own strength if they choose to remain with the drinker or not.
It's all about the kids. If you've still got a beef with your ex you need to get over it. There's no point. You might have disagreements about stuff, but those should be handled with the same intensity as a convenience store clerk.
My dream in all those years of aloneness, in all the workout-cardio tennis classes, was to get myself in good enough shape to attract a woman and get her on the tennis court. BOOM. At that moment, even before we'd struck a single ball, I GOT IT. This is what I was missing.
As you eventually become an adult, there are opportunities for self-regulation that begin to define you. For some folks, the casual drink is the indulgence that gives them a warm fuzzy feeling. But again, as we evolve as adults we begin to look beyond the buzz and towards other objectives.
I'm excited to live through those times WITH my kids. And I will be 100% positive and 100% present for all of them, as long as I live.
And at that moment, I also felt the joy of my father's love upon me. He might have left the planet 15 years ago, but his love is still within me. And each time I can really hear and connect with my own kids, my heart lights up with a little bit more healing of my 5-year-old self, my wounded little boy.