Do You Want to Sleep Tonight?

Hi friends.

I know we’ve talked on the threads before about drinking, but I haven’t done a full post on it yet and now seemed a good time to go long about it since I’m doing Dry Lent this year. A friend of mine said she wanted to stop drinking for the 40 days, and I said I would join her in solidarity. But also because after book tour and Carnival season and that long week in Florida, I needed a break. (I should note that obviously as a Jew I do not really “do Lent” but since I moved to New Orleans, the most Catholic place I have ever lived, I have, every few years or so, participated in this specific way.)

I like to take dry months when I feel like I want it or need it, not just during Dry January or Lent. I like it as a recharge. It’s definitely something I’ve started doing more starting in my mid-40s. Because when you adjust your relationship with alcohol, take breaks every so often, or cutting down considerably, or even quitting it forever, you feel it in all kinds of ways. And the most important way for me besides a calmness to my spirit—and perhaps this is connected to the calmness—is the incredible sleep I get.