What a beautiful way to look at it. You're right it's a part of our history that has died. This is my sixth day and I was growing weak and God sent me your message. God Bless! [B]My Milage:[/B] [B]My Quit Date: [/B] 12/16/2006 [B]Smoke-Free Days:[/B] 6 [B]Cigarettes Not Smoked:[/B] 95 [B]Amount Saved:[/B] $12.18 [B]Life Gained:[/B] [B]Days:[/B] 0 [B]Hrs:[/B] 17 [B]Mins:[/B] 12 [B]Seconds:[/B] 12

Peteg, Thank you. [B]My Milage:[/B] [B]My Quit Date: [/B] 11/26/2006 [B]Smoke-Free Days:[/B] 13 [B]Cigarettes Not Smoked:[/B] 456 [B]Amount Saved:[/B] $91 [B]Life Gained:[/B] [B]Days:[/B] 1 [B]Hrs:[/B] 8 [B]Mins:[/B] 12 [B]Seconds:[/B] 44

Thank you, Pete. I can completely relate to a lot of what you have said. I am finding it very hard to be happy with myself. In fact it seems harder in a way now than at the beginning when a day was a huge length of time and to get through it was amazing... but now it's the same as yesterday and tomorrow. But like you I'm not giving in. As Bingo said to me here once - (Forgive me Bingo, I may not use your exact words) I'd rather be a non-smoker with occasional pangs than a smoker who constantly craves to give up. I have to keep thinking of that. Thank you Bingo. :) Thank you Pete for reminding me that I'm not alone. :) [B]My Milage:[/B] [B]My Quit Date: [/B] 11/7/2006 [B]Smoke-Free Days:[/B] 34 [B]Cigarettes Not Smoked:[/B] 860 [B]Amount Saved:[/B] �187 [B]Life Gained:[/B] [B]Days:[/B] 2 [B]Hrs:[/B] 15 [B]Mins:[/B] 43 [B]Seconds:[/B] 3

Peteg and Monica, Congrats to both of you on 40 days. You both deserve some R & R!!!! Peteg, excellent post. Thank you so much for sharing. Your a wonderful writing and express yourself in words that some of us only dream about doing. Please keep it up. You are helping so many, and when we help others...we help ourselves. [IMG]http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q185/kaitilina/Angels-Care-Print-C10117583.jpg[/IMG] [B]My Milage:[/B] [B]My Quit Date: [/B] 11/7/2006 [B]Smoke-Free Days:[/B] 34 [B]Cigarettes Not Smoked:[/B] 758 [B]Amount Saved:[/B] $187 [B]Life Gained:[/B] [B]Days:[/B] 3 [B]Hrs:[/B] 0 [B]Mins:[/B] 53 [B]Seconds:[/B] 24

Thanks Rusty.. My arms and shoulders are down,, finally! Sometimes all that stress puts you in a very strange place, but today I plan on putting my feet up and just relax. For my 40 days quit I'm just looking forward to some 'me' time. I know it must sound awful simple, but that's what I'm cravin' right now...SIMPLE :) Happy 40 to you Pete :) :) Monica58 [B]My Milage:[/B] [B]My Quit Date: [/B] 10/31/2006 [B]Smoke-Free Days:[/B] 40 [B]Cigarettes Not Smoked:[/B] 806 [B]Amount Saved:[/B] $360 [B]Life Gained:[/B] [B]Days:[/B] 4 [B]Hrs:[/B] 9 [B]Mins:[/B] 33 [B]Seconds:[/B] 22

'Morning Pete, Well since I'm of the Jewish persuasion.. I've hit my 40 days and 40 nights and I'm tired as hell ! Last night a friend came over (and yeppers she smokes) and I was so very close to joining her outside for a cigarette. My goodness, the temptation was so very strong ! I thought of so many things.. and yes, the Jewish guilt kicked my butt a few times..lol.. But more importantly the fact that so many, regardless of race or religion have had to put up a major fight for what was rightfully theirs. So Pete, it's our health, our well-being, our sense of 'duty' to our families, our friends that we fight THIS fight to the end ! I'm so very exhausted on so many levels, just with life's trials and tests.. I know that when my time comes, the 1st thing I'm going to say when I reach the pearly gates (assuming I go UP..lol) is this>> YOU'VE GOT A LOT OF EXPLAINING TO DO ! ! ! ! LMBO ! It's tough.. it's all tough, but we are TOUGHER ! Monica58 [B]My Milage:[/B] [B]My Quit Date: [/B] 10/31/2006 [B]Smoke-Free Days:[/B] 40 [B]Cigarettes Not Smoked:[/B] 806 [B]Amount Saved:[/B] $360 [B]Life Gained:[/B] [B]Days:[/B] 4 [B]Hrs:[/B] 9 [B]Mins:[/B] 29 [B]Seconds:[/B] 41

Wow -- so cool to hear from everyone! Still so much a process, not an accomplishment. And I'm ashamed to say I spent most of my 40th day wondering if I might sneak a smoke somewhere, somehow. So much for enlightenment. The fact is, I'm nothing but a loser. By (um -- gotta be careful here!!) "some power higher than my own," I've been able to steer (or is it stear?) clear of temptation, but I'm so tired of the battle. It's SO GREAT that out of the blue, these thousand-day people have emerged -- Katy and John W -- we gotta watch them and grab their coattails (if they don't mind being grabbed!!! -- why do I think Phil is suddenly smirking??) -- This is such a serious, life and death business. People who love us are depending on us to quit so that we might be around for them; people who have succeeded on this board are showing up as "The Great Cloud of Witnesses" to tell us we can -- and must -- do it. The thousand-plus day people aren't here for us because they have nothing better to do with their time --- they came back to tell us that it's worth it, and that we must push on. SUCKS!!! I so want to quit the friggin quit. SICK of it! If we're going to take up this board's bandwidth and breathe its air, then I guess the least we can do is be serious, huh? I'm serious, but so, so tired of fighting. Those of you into the whole 40-day thing and also into Jewish history may recall that Moses in the wilderness also got sick of the fight. As long as his arms were in the air, the Israelites won the battles; when the arms came down, the Israelites lost. So people stood around Moses holding his arms up during the battles. As long as they were there, Moses won. We're holding each others' arms up during these battles, are we not? As long as we're together, holding up one anothers' arms, we can't lose. So why do I want to scream at you to get the f*(k away from me and let me smoke??? I may want to scream, but I haven't. Instead, I've thanked you from the bottom of my heart for your presence on this board. Bette Davis, God love her, once said that getting old is not for sissies. How about this: Quitting is not for sissies? We are strong together -- I am garbage on my own. Thank you all, and bless you all, from Jerusalem. peteg

Title says it all, so if you're not into the spiritual side of this craziness, we can't say you weren't warned. (Oh. And it's also a little long-winded! Find that Back button quick like a bunny! Run, Forest, run!) We make a big deal about our anniversaries here, as well we should: one day, one week, one month, one year -- all are cause for fireworks. God knows my 30-days was a barn-burner complete with a fancy dinner and a special dad/daughter shoe-shopping trip; I got not one, but TWO pairs of shoes I would never have bought myself! (My kids are SO friggin COOL!!) But I digress. In my spiritual tradition, 40 days is a pretty big deal. In the sacred stories in my tradition, people who go through 40 days of hardship come out the other side forever changed. In some pieces of my tradition, people give stuff up (such as cigarettes!) for a 40-day period every single year. (Me, I was never much into that whole giving-up thing. What addict is? Hello???) I'm not quite in my mid-fifties, but I'm not sure I can think of anything I did or didn't do for 40 days in my whole life. Suddenly, I find myself hours away from 40 days without a cigarette. If I am to follow in the tradition of my spiritual heroes and elders, then when I hit Day 41 my options are severely limited. We learned from the Israelites, who spent 40 years in the wilderness, that returning to slavery in Egypt was no more an option than returning to the slavery of smoking after 40 days in the withdrawal wilderness. I am so profoundly grateful to all of the courageous people who have shared their stories of being drawn back into the slavery of Egypt, and of their determination to begin again the journey to the Promised Land of freedom and dignity -- If I am able to stay out of the wilderness after my own 40 days, it will be only because of your willingness to show me the dangers of looking back and thinking that I can "visit" Egypt for an hour or even a minute. I can't thank you enough for that... it helps me accept my sadness that such a huge piece of my life as I knew it is just plain dead and buried. Like the Israelites who came before me, I found a lot to like about slavery in Egypt -- it becomes more appealing the farther away it is. I'm kind of sad that I will never

I would never be so small as to hope to have the last word in any conversation, but it could be time for this one to end. Your words are granite, borne from our shared addiction. They are graven on my heart and in my soul. It's funny -- I have a friend, a brother, here in this place where I work, who suffers from an addiction to alcohol. I love him and often wondered how I might best serve him. HA!! Now I know, as addiction knows no particularities, does it? He drinks, I smoke -- and the difference would be == ?? Here's the fact: He doesn't drink, and I don't smoke. We are the world. Remember my original post? "Facing the Rising Sun of our new day begun, let us march on till victory is won." -- James Weldon Johnson You guys rock to the ends of the earth peteg [B]My Milage:[/B] [B]My Quit Date: [/B] 10/30/2006 [B]Smoke-Free Days:[/B] 42 [B]Cigarettes Not Smoked:[/B] 2,144 [B]Amount Saved:[/B] $231 [B]Life Gained:[/B] [B]Days:[/B] 7 [B]Hrs:[/B] 12 [B]Mins:[/B] 10 [B]Seconds:[/B] 34

I once said "peteg's 82nd post=legendary" .........post 232 has joined ranks of the "Illustrious writings (and rantings) of Peteg"! Brilliance Pete..Sheer briliance!! Sometimes I think is there more that I can pull from this site? then a gem like this appears. Thanks Pete! You so totally rock dude!! [B]My Milage:[/B] [B]My Quit Date: [/B] 11/7/2006 [B]Smoke-Free Days:[/B] 33 [B]Cigarettes Not Smoked:[/B] 679 [B]Amount Saved:[/B] $151.8 [B]Life Gained:[/B] [B]Days:[/B] 4 [B]Hrs:[/B] 19 [B]Mins:[/B] 29 [B]Seconds:[/B] 32