The Trees Are Green

If you’ve ever felt consumed by a habit, craving, or addiction, this episode will speak straight to your heart.

In today’s episode of Living Life Unbinged, we share a powerful full-circle story about addiction recovery, clarity, and what happens when obsession finally lifts.

Years ago, a man in long-term sobriety made a simple comment: “The trees are so green.” At the time, it seemed small. But decades later, after walking through sugar addiction and finding freedom, that statement made perfect sense.

Because when something consumes 95% of your mental space, whether it’s food, alcohol, your phone, or control, you stop seeing clearly. You stop noticing beauty. You stop living fully. And when the obsession breaks? Everything looks different 

 In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How food obsession and other addictions steal mental clarity
• Why idols dull your gratitude and narrow your focus
• The surprising beauty that returns with freedom in Christ
• How surrender restores more than habits, it restores vision
• Why letting go creates space for peace
• What true mental clarity feels like after years of noise

This episode is a reminder that when we remove the idol, whatever it may be, we regain the life God intended us to experience.

If you’re struggling with something that feels all-consuming, please hear this: freedom is possible. With God’s strength and daily obedience, the fog lifts. The numbness fades. The world brightens.

And yes, the trees really do become greener. 

If this episode encouraged you, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a friend who needs hope today.

NEXT STEPS

 🔥 Join the 7-Day Breaking Free From Food Addiction Challenge: https://lifeunbinged.com/qs-weight-loss-bundle/ 

📖 Download the FREE Guide – Breaking Free From Food Addiction: https://lifeunbinged.com/breaking-free-from-food-addiction

✨ Website: https://lifeunbinged.com
📧 Support: support@lifeunbinged.com

Make it a great day!

Find me on social media:

Instagram - @lifeunbinged

Facebook - Life Unbinged

TikTok - @lifeunbinged

YouTube - @lifeubinged7371

X - Life Unbinged

Threads - @lifeunbinged

Pinterest - Life Unbinged

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:20

Years ago, my husband and I owned a carpet cleaning company, and we would hire so many different people. Some people would stay for years, and some that would come temporarily and then leave. One particular person that we hired, I'll call him Jack actually, because his name was Jack. And we were driving with him, my husband and I, and another carpet cleaner, and we were talking all about their life, right? Just kind of getting to know him. He was fairly new and he was sharing just a little bit about his life. And randomly we got out of the car and he looked up, and it was the weirdest thing. I'm watching this man, and he's looking up at the trees. And then he kind of looks at us and I said, What's up there? And he said, The trees are so green. And I thought, um, yeah, trees are usually green. It was kind of an odd statement. I had never seen someone look up at trees and be so observant and then speak out how green they were. And then he proceeded to talk about his life in recovery. He shared with us that he used to be an alcoholic for a lot of years. And then he stopped drinking. He quit. He knew it was ruining his life. He knew it was ruining his family, and he didn't want to continue. So he went to a recovery center or a rehab and got sober. And he said he hadn't drank, I think he had said maybe 18 years. It was a really long time. Okay. So it was in his past. But the fact that he looked up and saw those trees and was observing that and then spoke about how green they were, he explained to me that when he was drinking or in the drink, in the alcohol, he never saw the colors. He never noticed beauty. He never had gratitude for anything. His main focus was: I want to drink. I can't wait to get done what I'm doing now. When can I get to that alcohol? Where can I get it? How much can I get it? When do I have to stop drinking it? How am I going to get a job? How am I going to work the next day? But it was constant thoughts about alcohol. So he said he'd literally never noticed the beauty in trees or flowers or anything outside. That really fascinated me. And when I would see a tree or color, I would kind of look at it and think about that. And I thought about Jack over the years and his statement of the trees are so green. And I kind of still thought it was an odd thing to say, but I understood where he was coming for, and I very much appreciated him explaining it. So fast forward myself, about 20 years from when I first met him at our carpet cleaning company and cleaning carpets. I myself was struggling with an addiction, which was food and sugar. And I was heavily in the sugar. And I spent most of my days thinking about sugar, what I'm going to have. How much am I going to have of it? Where can I get it? Where can I hide it? How much can I have without people noticing I'm having that much? And what am I going to do to solve it? All those crazy obsessive thoughts that took up 95% of free space in my brain. And I struggled with that for a solid, oh gosh, 25, 35 years, really. And then it got really progressive because everything is progressive. And it became where it was obsessively thinking about that all the time. And I just couldn't stop. So at the point I prayed the desperate prayer in 2017 is when my life changed and I stopped sugar. I quit it. I said, I'm done. I cannot keep living like this. I have to let it go because that's all I think about. It set off a firework show in my brain, and that was my thought. Sugar, sugar, sugar, where, when, how, how much, all of that. Constant. So I was in that for a long time and it had progressed. And then I quit. And then one day I was outside looking around and I saw the trees. And I said to myself, that tree is so green. And I immediately thought of Jack and his recovery and his sobriety, that the trees were now green. It was the exact same thing. I was blown away because I didn't even think about him in years. But when I stood outside looking at the green trees, the blue sky, the flowers, all the colors, I immediately knew what he had experienced. And it all made sense. Everything gets better and brighter and more clear when we are not consumed with something that is taking away from our life. Whether it's food, sweets, alcohol, phone addiction, I don't care what it is, if we are completely sucked in towards something or putting an idol in our life at the top of the list, we're missing out on the amazing life God has created for us. We're missing out on the beauty. We're missing out on the wonder. And I didn't want to miss out on that anymore. So when I looked out and saw the beauty in the world, I knew that I never wanted to go back to the dull, numb feeling of sugar addiction or any addiction. If you're struggling with any sort of idol or addiction, I promise you it's possible to let it go with God's strength and a lot of hard work, but the trees will become greener, rainbows will become brighter, and the world becomes simply a better place.