“You are enough!”
Three words have been sitting with me this month: “You are enough.”
I don’t know where I first heard them — they’re the kind of words that seem to belong to everyone and no one, passed along until they become almost too familiar to really hear. But lately they’ve landed differently. Maybe because of who walks through our doors here at TriCircle: the people living with addiction, and the families and friends who love them.
If you’re in recovery, like I am, you’ve probably heard some version of “not enough” more times than you can count — from others, or from the voice in your own head that’s the hardest one to argue with. Not enough willpower. Not enough progress. Not enough days, weeks, years. That voice is loud, and it lies.
And if you’re a parent, a spouse, a sibling, a child or a friend of someone in that struggle, or if you are someone who has been left behind after a substance related passing, you carry your own version of “not enough.” Not enough to have stopped it. Not enough to have seen it sooner. Not enough patience left after the hundredth hard night. I don’t have lived experience as a parent and you will never hear me say, “I can only imagine.” I do not have to be a parent to know that voice lies too.
Here’s what I keep coming back to: enough was never about the scoreboard. It isn’t about days of abstinence stacked in a row, or about having said and done everything perfectly as a family member standing on the sidelines of someone else’s pain. It’s about something quieter — that you, just as you are today, carrying what you’re carrying, are not a problem to be solved before you’re allowed to matter.
I’ve seen it here, over and over. Someone newly sober says one true sentence in a circle, certain it doesn’t count for much — and it’s exactly what another person needed to hear. A parent finally says out loud, “I don’t know if I did this right,” and someone else in the room exhales for the first time in weeks, because they needed permission to not know either.
None of them were finished. They were enough anyway.
So this month, to everyone carrying a piece of this — in recovery, or loving someone who is — I hope you can let those three words sit with you the way they’ve sat with me and the way they are meant to. Not as something to earn. Just as something that is already true.
On a celebratory note, this year we get to mark something special together: TriCircle is turning ten. On July 26th, we are hosting our Annual Gala to celebrate a decade of community and connection – ten years of circles held, stories shared, and people reminded that they are enough. We are delighted that Good News Guy Keith McGilvery (KMcG) will be joining us again as our emcee for the event, and we couldn’t think of a better spirit to bring to the celebration. We’d love for you to be there – save the date and join us for this incredible milestone.
With deep gratitude and hope,
Ana
Celebrating 10 Years of Community & Connection
TriCircle, Wallingford, Connecticut
Stay tuned as we continue counting down to July 26, 2026 — we can’t wait to celebrate with you.