Well we did it! “I Love Recovery Café” is now a thing. Months of editing, website building, coding, discussing and deciding have gone into the creation of this pretty fabulous project. I am completely thrilled to be able to present I Love Recovery Café, to the global recovery community. My vision for such a publication began as a “maybe someday” dream. Now here it is, full of life, love and talent.
The inspiration for this website came from the abundance of passionate and talented people in our recovery community making themselves known to me, and their desire to share their stories through the arts. This site would not be possible without these willing souls, and each of them should be proud of their achievement.
I am passionate about self-expression and the healing that sharing our stories brings. So many of us write, paint and compose, but few of us ever get to have our work seen and heard in the public arena. Self-expression has been a fundamental part of my own recovery. Without it I believe I wouldn’t be the strong, empowered and recovered person I am today. With the support of the Nightcapjournal team, I can now provide the opportunity for you and your loved ones to discover for yourself the immense freedom created by sharing your own experience. Some contributors have never written before. Some have a vast collection of work that they have never shared and some are seasoned writers and artists. Whatever their situation, one thing is undeniable - we all have something to learn from their courage and honesty.
Some of the topics that are covered on I Love Recovery Café are addiction and recovery, lifestyle, sex and relationships, yoga, nutrition - the list goes on. We have music, poetry, essays and photography. Hopefully soon we will be showcasing some art pieces. We have so many ideas for this platform going forward that we can hardly contain our excitement. Yes I have become borderline insanely obsessed and witnessing the enthusiasm of the contributors, all of whom are in recovery themselves, makes the madness worthwhile.
So who exactly is behind the creation and birth of this site? Well without RT and Kenny it would never have happened of course. They were immediately supportive of the idea and gave me whatever I needed to pull it off. They also always seem to believe in me even when I don’t believe in myself. We have gotten to know each other a little bit more and they are now very aware of my excellent harassment skills. Seriously, you cannot hide from me!
Then there’s John(Nightcapjournal member Joanas and Chief Technology Officer), the Nightcapjournal tech genius who worked beside me every day. Well actually four thousand miles away but through skype he was in my house a lot. He has taught me about things I didn’t even know are things in the land of computers. While I will never have the patience nor the will to build a website, I am certainly more technically savvy because of him. I’m also very appreciative of the fact that he was never offended by my constant use of expletives - or at least never showed it. Also thank you to the logo designers and James, who does other technical stuff I’ve no idea about.
We welcome submissions from all recovering people, globally. Already we have contributors from America, Canada, France, Scotland, England and Ireland. Your story is also important and has the potential to enrich the lives of many others who read it. Don’t doubt yourself. Only you, the people affected by addiction and mental health issues, truly have the power to reach others in a similar situation - and we want to give you a voice. If you are interested in having your work published or becoming a regular contributor to the I Love Recovery Cafe, please visit www.ilovereocvery.com and click on the contributors section for submission details. We hope you enjoy the site as much as we have enjoyed creating it.
So pull up a chair, grab a coffee and savour the delights at I Love Recovery Café!
Nicola O’Hanlon
Editor-In-Chief
www.iloverecovery.com
