The Practice of Imperfection Arrives January 5, 2027

I'm happy to share that my first book, The Practice of Imperfection: Finding and Keeping Serenity will be released on January 5, 2027, from Fulcourt Press. It's a book for family members and friends of people with addiction, and it rests on one idea I've come to trust: your serenity doesn't depend on whether they get sober.

Why I wrote it

I've seen addiction from every side: growing up with it, living it, recovering from it, and watching my kids fight it. AA gave me the tools not to die. Al-Anon gave me the tools to actually live, and to find serenity regardless of what other people choose. For years my attention was on everyone else, surviving them, becoming them, trying to save them. This book is about what I found when I finally turned my attention to myself.

Why "imperfection"

Nobody does recovery perfectly, and this book doesn't ask you to. Finding serenity, losing it, and finding it again is the practice itself, not proof that you're doing it wrong. What changes over time is how quickly you notice you've lost it, how fast you find your way back, and how much gentler you become with yourself along the way.

What's inside

The book is organized into four sections following the arc of a butterfly, a longstanding and beloved symbol of Al-Anon recovery.

• Foundations, chapters one through three, explores the family disease of addiction and how it affects those of us who live alongside it, even when we don't have the substance problem ourselves.
• Caterpillar, chapters four through eight, is where I unpack the Three A's: Awareness, Acceptance and Action. They work like a three-legged stool, a map back to serenity when you lose it, and they hold up whatever your loved one happens to be doing.
• Superpowers, chapters nine through thirteen, takes on the more nuanced tools: detachment, boundaries, self-care, forgiveness, and releasing secrets. These are the skills that keep serenity from being handed away the next time a crisis shows up.
• Butterfly, chapters fourteen through sixteen, is about what comes next. You reframe your experience from suffering to sustenance, build a life and an identity of your own, and settle into the ongoing practice of returning to your center, with or without the addict in your life.
• Each chapter closes with two guided meditations and a set of practice questions.

Who it's for

This book was written to provide encouragement and understanding to newcomers who are looking for an antidote to their pain and confusion, as well as longtime members ready for a back-to-basics reboot, or to deepen their program. Whether you have a loved one who is using, someone in early sobriety, or a partner or spouse living in recovery, The Practice of Imperfection was written for you. It's full of stories, slogans and notebook entries from my years in the program, as well as tools I've developed, tested and used myself.

Where to find it

The Practice of Imperfection will be available on January 5, 2027. It will be available in paperback and eBook formats at Amazon and other online booksellers. You can also order it directly from your local bookshop. In the meantime, you can find me at https://davehrecovery.com, where I'll share more as release day gets closer.

If someone in your life could use a book like this, I'd be grateful if you'd pass this announcement along.

Thank you for walking with me on this one.

Dave H.