The King County Library System


The King County Library System  (KCLS or KCLS.org) has now surpassed the Queens, NY library as the nations biggest library system as measured by items checked-out.

Every Friday, we meet at Crossroads Mall in front of a tiny neighborhood library.  It is one of 43 KCLS libraries and a great place to meet friends.  There are magazines to browse while waiting and patrons can have book-holds delivered to that branch.  The web-enabled computers are all always in use.

I ordered a dozen books last Thursday.  Most of them are now at the library.  There are two Jack Reacher/Lee Child books that I wanted.  One for Michelle is a Jon Kabot-Zinn book on mindful meditation.  The rest are books on Tarot and Chakra energy for Lea. She will presumably take the best of the bunch and return the rest.

I am grateful for the fantastic resource that the KCLS brings to our community.

Supper With Sandy


Sandy and I have been going out for a weekly meal seven years.  We tried dozens of restaurants in/near Redmond before going to the Redmond Friday night AFG meeting for the first four years.  We stopped going to that meeting 3 years ago after they were moved by the church in a smaller room that felt too crowded for me to find a socially comfortable place to sit in my wheelchair.

For the last two years, we have been meeting for dinner on Monday nights.  Last summer we found a Thai restaurant, Noppakao, in Juanita that serves delicious healthy meals with super fresh vegetables.  Now when we try other restaurants, they just don’t measure up in terms of taste, freshness and value.

We share a positive world view preferring a much more egalitarian society instead of the current one where the rich use the poor to scare the middleclass into working (my favorite/only Jerry Pournelle quote).

I am grateful for my friend Sandy and for having the resources to enjoy great food cooked & served by others while we share wonderful conversation.

A Church Service With Michelle


For the first time in nine years, Michelle went back to the gospel church where she got married, learned religion and started a street ministry.  It was an emotional reunion full of love and joy.   It was the most joyful “family” reunion I have ever seen. 

The service featured lots of great spiritual rock music and singing.  It was a small service with lots of love and praise for Jesus.

I am grateful to be able to help others find their way home.  

Joy, Fellowship and a Pancake Breakfast


I go to a prison meeting once a month at the Washington State Reformatory in Monroe.  Mark P goes to the same meeting with Leslee, Lisa and I.  The meeting and fellowship on the drive is my favorite night of the month—I always know I will feel good when I get home.

22 years ago, Mark organized the first Eastside Intergroup pancake breakfast.  It is a popular event with 200 people coming for breakfast, a speaker meeting and fellowship.   Usually they have an AA and an Alanon speaker.  Today will be a little different with an AA speaker and a Q&A panel on recovery.  I am sure it will be great.

I got up early to write my Gratitude blog.  My friend Joy is flying in from Walla Walla this morning.  I will pick her up at SeaTac and then bring her here to play with the cats for an hour before we take Lea to the clinic and then go to the fellowship breakfast.

Seven years ago, I got my first housecat.  Jenny seemed lonely judging by the loud yowling at 4 in the morning.  I got Jenny a kitten.  Joy helped me pick out and name June Bug.  (I got her in June.)  Bug and I bonded very closely.  She will read around in my lap when I am in my wheelchair.  When I am in bed, Bug lays on my hand purring will I rub her belly.

Joy moved to Walla Walla six years ago.   She really likes the small town atmosphere.  It is a good match for her and a nice place to live.  Before she moved, we went to the Empire Way meeting every Wednesday for two years.   Years ago on the night before she would have had 10 years of sobriety, she got in a car wreck caused by a drunk driver suffering a head injury and having her leg amputated below the knee.  She went back out for 18 months.  She now has 10.5 years of sobriety.  She is a remarkable woman with a ton of courage and kindness.


I am grateful for my friends Joy, Mark, Lisa and Leslee; my cats, and the fellowship with others I get from AA.

Waking Up Eager to Face the Day


Waking up to positive thoughts about the day ahead has been a goal of mine for years.  This morning I woke up thinking about today’s activities.  I would like to meditate on the day ahead on a daily basis.  It was great to have this happen naturally instead of being a part of an contrived morning routine/habit.

After a rare early morning phone call with Leslee and a bowl of cereal for breakfast for the first time in months, I am bit pressed for time to exercise on my hand-bike before we get going to the clinic, a meeting and then meet with Charlie.  Quite possibly it is also a good reason to wrap up my writing this morning on short note.

I am grateful to wake up eager to face the day before me with meditated mindfulness.

Helping Others


Lea got the remaining half of her 25 broken teeth pulled yesterday.  I made a commitment to helping her get her teeth fixed last September.  She was nearly impossible to help while stuck at a dealer’s home—especially when they sold crack and heroin—her two drugs of choice.  She rarely answered the phone or responded to texts.  I was the most stalker-ish I have ever been in my life texting her affirmations that she was worthy of having teeth that worked in a painless way.

In January, she asked me for a ride out of that dealers den.  When I picked her up, she was like a ball of human Kleenex sobbing incessantly.   She ended up going to a crackhouse.  It was the first and only time in my life that I discussed not committing suicide with someone I knew and cared for.

In February, she asked for help getting medical and dental care.  We ended up going to the Healthpoint public health clinic in Redmond.  After multiple trips to the Healthpoint dental clinic, she had a few of her 25 broken teeth pulled.  It would take years at that rate to get them all removed.  They promised and reneged on a referral to oral surgery at Harborview.  Bringing in a copy of the referral form got the promised referral.

It was a tremendous victory for both of us to get her teeth pulled.  I made good on a long-term promise to a friend in dire straits—something I have never come close to before in my life.  She became the kind of person that shows up for appointments on time.  Working together, we got her teeth pulled.   She has an appointment to see a denturist in two weeks when her gums are reasonably healed.

Before recovery, I was not the guy people came to for help.  Now I have helped a friend get off heroin onto methadone and get her broken teeth pulled.  We go to a meeting every day. That is by far and away the most positive change I have ever helped another person in my life.  I am showing up in my life as the kind of person that I always wanted to be.

I am grateful for learning how to be a better friend and of service to others.  It is a dream come true for me.

Take in the Good


Straight cut-n-paste from:


The Practice
Take in the good.
Why?
Scientists believe that your brain has a built-in “negativity bias.” In other words, as we evolved over millions of years, dodging sticks and chasing carrots, it was a lot more important to notice, react to, and remember sticks than it was for carrots.
That’s because – in the tough environments in which our ancestors lived – if they missed out on a carrot, they usually had a shot at another one later on. But if they failed to avoid a stick – a predator, a natural hazard, or aggression from others of their species – WHAM, no more chances to pass on their genes.
The negativity bias shows up in lots of ways. For example, studies have found that:
•          In a relationship, it typically takes five good interactions to make up for a single bad one.
•          People will work much harder to avoid losing $100 than they will work to gain the same amount of money.
•          Painful experiences are much more memorable than pleasurable ones.

In your own mind, what do you usually think about at the end of the day? The fifty things that went right, or the one that went wrong? Like the guy who cut you off in traffic, what you wish you had said differently to a co-worker, or the one thing on your To Do list that didn’t get done . . .
In effect, the brain is like Velcro for negative experiences, but Teflon for positive ones. That shades “implicit memory” – your underlying expectations, beliefs, action strategies, and mood – in an increasingly negative direction.
And that’s just not fair, since probably most of the facts in your life are positive or neutral. Every day, lots of good things happen, such as a lovely sunset, someone is nice to you, you finish a batch of emails, or you learn something new. And lots of other good things are ongoing aspects of your world (e.g., your children are healthy, life is peaceful in your corner of the planet) or yourself (e.g., personal qualities like determination, sincerity, fairness, kindness).
Besides the sheer injustice of it, acquiring a big pile of negative experiences in implicit memory banks naturally makes a person more anxious, irritable, and blue. Plus it makes it harder to be patient and giving toward others.
In evolution, Mother Nature only cares about passing on genes – by any means necessary. She doesn’t care if we happen to suffer along the way - from subtle worries to intense feelings of sorrow, worthlessness, or anger – or create suffering for others.
The result: a brain that is tilted against lasting contentment and fulfillment.
But you don’t have to accept this bias! By tilting toward the good – “good” in the practical sense of that which brings more happiness to oneself and more helpfulness to others – you merely level the playing field.
You’ll still see the tough parts of life. In fact, you’ll become more able to change them or bear them if you tilt toward the good, since that will help put challenges in perspective, lift your energy and spirits, highlight useful resources, and fill up your own cup so you have more to offer to others.
And now, tilted toward absorbing the good, instead of positive experiences washing through you like water through a sieve, they’ll collect in implicit memory deep down in your brain. In the famous saying, “neurons that fire together, wire together.” The more you get your neurons firing about positive facts, the more they’ll be wiring up positive neural structures.
Taking in the good is a brain-science savvy and psychologically skillful way to improve how you feel, get things done, and treat others. It is among the top five personal growth methods I know. In addition to being good for adults, it’s great for children, helping them to become more resilient, confident, and happy.
Here’s how to take in the good – in three simple steps.
How?
1.  Look for good facts, and turn them into good experiences.
Good facts include positive events – like the taste of good coffee or getting an unexpected compliment – and positive aspects of the world and yourself. When you notice something good, let yourself feel good about it.
Try to do this at least a half dozen times a day. There are lots of opportunities to notice good events, and you can always recognize good things about the world and yourself. Each time takes just 30 seconds or so. It’s private; no one needs to know you are taking in the good. You can do it on the fly in daily life, or at special times of reflection, like just before falling asleep (when the brain is especially receptive to new learning).
Notice any reluctance to feeling good. Such as thinking that you don’t deserve to, or that it’s selfish, vain, or even shameful to feel pleasure. Or that if you feel good, you will lower your guard and let bad things happen.
Barriers to feeling good are common and understandable – but they get in the way of you taking in the resources you need to feel better, have more strength, and have more inside to give to others. So acknowledge them to yourself, and then turn your attention back to the good news. Keep opening up to it, breathing and relaxing, letting the good facts affect you.
It’s like sitting down to a meal: don’t just look at it—taste it!
2.  Really enjoy the experience.
Most of the time, a good experience is pretty mild, and that’s fine. But try to stay with it for 20 or 30 seconds in a row – instead of getting distracted by something else.
As you can, sense that it is filling your body, becoming a rich experience. As Marc Lewis and other researchers have shown, the longer that something is held in awareness and the more emotionally stimulating it is, the more neurons that fire and thus wire together, and the stronger the trace in memory.
You are not craving or clinging to positive experiences, since that would ultimately lead to tension and disappointment. Actually, you are doing the opposite: by taking them in and filling yourself up with them, you will increasingly feel less fragile or needy inside, and less dependent on external supplies; your happiness and love will become more unconditional, based on an inner fullness rather than on whether the momentary facts in your life happen to be good ones.
3. Intend and sense that the good experience is sinking into you.
People do this in different ways. Some feel it in their body like a warm glow spreading through their chest like the warmth of a cup of hot cocoa on a cold wintry day. Others visualize things like a golden syrup sinking down inside, bringing good feelings and soothing old places of hurt, filling in old holes of loss or yearning; a child might imagine a jewel going into a treasure chest in her heart. And some might simply know conceptually, that while this good experience is held in awareness, its neurons are firing busily away, and gradually wiring together
*     *     *
Any single time you do this will make only a little difference. But over time those little differences will add up, gradually weaving positive experiences into the fabric of your brain and your self.

I am grateful for my ability to take in the good today.

New Tapes


As far back as I can remember my mind played these negative tapes castigating myself for past events, actions and behaviors.  That led to my not living in the present moment and little faith that the future was going to be any better.  It is no wonder that I suffered from chronic depression.

Today my mind no longer incessantly plays those same old tapes. They do get played now and then—but only for a short time and not the non-stop repetition like how it used to be.

Now I get to hear now tapes such as knowing that is/will be a beautiful spring day.  I will have success working on my recovery.  I will be of service to god and others.  I have enough…of everything.  Today will be filled with happiness, joy, laughter and lovingkindness.

I am grateful for the new tapes in my head.  They make my life worth living.

The Return of the Sun


It was a nice sunny day today.  That made waiting at the park between appointments much more pleasant than having to sit in the rain through another dreary spring day.

I am grateful for warm sunny days.  The lush green budding vegetation is a sight to behold.

Dinner and a Meeting


Went to dinner at Whole Foods with Greg, Michelle and Lea tonight.  After that, we went to a meeting at the Alanon Club.  They have 30+ days sober.  It is good to have a posse of fellow trudgers that are also new in recovery.  It has been a long time since I went to a non-prison meeting with 4 people in my car.

The meeting topic was on gratitude.  One guy remembered somebody passing out slips of paper at a meeting three years ago to write a gratitude list on.  That was me.  I looked on my PC for the template for those gratitude list slips last week.  It was good to remember that.  It was the first time to write a gratitude list for over half the people at the meeting.

I am grateful for good friends in early recovery.  They help me remember the insanity of how it was.


Meeting Charlie at Crossroads Mall


Charlie has been my AA sponsor for 4+ years.  We try to meet at Crossroads Mall on a weekly basis.  That was a bit hit-and-miss for awhile.  We talk for an hour and then read from the Grapevine, the Big Book or 12x12 for a few minutes or whatever other literature I might bring.  Charlie is a student of eastern spiritual writings. 

Over time, we have tried meeting on all the weekdays in the afternoon.  We never found a time that worked week-in and week-out.  There was always something that blocked our having a consistent schedule.  Lately we have taken to meeting on Fridays mornings at 11.  That looks like it will work well.   Charlie exercise at the gym behind the mall right before we meet.  Lea and I have been going to a meeting that gets out at 10:30.

[I started writing this Gratitude blog post early this morning and am now finally finishing it after midnight.]

This morning Charlie, Greg, Caroline, Lea and I meet at the mall.  That went well.  We discussed various topics in our lives.  We rarely discuss news of the world.  Current events tend to agitate our cynicism blocking us from the sunlight of the spirit.   We read the second step out of the 12x12 and had a overview discussion about our religious backgrounds and got a bit more in-depth about our current sense of spirituality.  It was a good meeting at the mall.  Lea read out loud to more than 2 people for the first time in maybe 25 years.   

I am grateful for the love and support I get from my friends and fellow trudgers in recovery.

Changing My Mind By Changing My Brain


Today I woke-up happy and grateful.  That is a huge change from how it used to be when I suffered from chronic depression over the course of not merely months or years but decades.  Thanks to the twin miracles of neuroplasticity and recovery, I am eager to get out of bed and start my day today with reading, writing and meditation. 

Soon I will be going to a meeting and then doing some minor repairs on my car door—thus healing my mind and (car) body!

I am grateful for having much less depression and a lot more happiness in my life.

Love and Fear As Opposites


All these failings generate fear, a soul-sickness in its own right.
Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, p. 49

"Fear knocked at the door; faith answered; no one was there." I don't know to whom this quote should be attributed, but it certainly indicates very clearly that fear is an illusion. I create the illusion myself.

I experienced fear early in my life and I mistakenly thought that the mere presence of it made me a coward. I didn't know that one of the definitions of "courage" is "the willingness to do the right thing in spite of fear." Courage, then, is not necessarily the absence of fear.

During the times I didn't have love in my life I most assuredly had fear. To fear God is to be afraid of joy. In looking back, I realize that, during the times I feared God most, there was no joy in my life. As I learned not to fear God, I also learned to experience joy.”                     
                        From the book Daily Reflections


All of my life, I suffered from a generalized anxiety with no specific cause and was unable to remember joyful moments nearly as well as negative experiences.  This was like chronic PTSD per current neuropsychological research.  Even after years of recovery I still had generalized anxiety, although it was not nearly as overwhelming as it used to be.

Using tools from recovery, meditation, and positive psychology, I have been able to rewire my brain stop the constant generalized anxiety and wake-up looking forward to each day.  Now I get up every day to read a page from an AA and an Alanon spiritual affirmation  and write my gratitude blog. 

I had been doing a few minutes exercise for a couple of weeks in March.  That fell by the wayside due to problems with chronic blood clots in my left thigh and then failure to (literally) get back on my hand-bike and ride.  Today I will ride my hand-bike for 5 minutes.

I am grateful to be free from generalized anxiety today and for having the wherewithal to get some exercise.

Improved Relationships


My first day clean after my months-long relapse last year, I had dinner with Sandy and an epiphany that relationships with others was the most important thing to me for the rest of my life.  All of my relationships are better now.  Varying degrees of better, but definitely all are better.

My most important relationship is between me, my higher power and my sobriety.  Without that, there are no other healthy relationships.

Today I am able to both love and support others in their lives and allow others to love and support me in my life.  An example of allowing love and support is taking a friend with me to my doctor appointments.  Prior to last fall, I had never done that in my life.  Now both Lea and Michelle have gone to the doctor with me.  It is good for me to not be such a secret about my health care issues.

I am grateful for the (small) burning bush kind of spiritual epiphany about how important relationships are to me and for the vast improvement in the quality of my relationships.  Interactive love and support make my world a better place to be.

Grocery Stores


I love our grocery stores.  To me, they are like museums displaying a tribute to conspicuous consumption in America.  I have been to QFC, Safeway, Fred Meyer, Whole Foods, Walmart,  Grocery Outlet, Cash-n-Carry and Costco in the last two months.  The first five stores work well for shoppers with any size household.  Cash-n-Carry and Costco sell bulk-sized items that require considerable storage space such as a bale of toilet paper or a 15 pound rib roast.

These stores each have somewhere between 1000 and 10,000 different products on their shelves for sale.  I like some variety in my food and household products.  A SWAG estimate is that I buy 100 different products in the course of a year (counting various sizes of milk or different kinds of sliced wheat breads as one item).

Earlier this month, my friend Greg pointed out a different grocery store, Pacific Foods International, (PFI) located just south of Chinatown in Seattle.  I gave it a drive-by last week.  It was not so accessible with stairs at the primary entrance.  I could have gone in through the loading dock but the parking lot was at a steeper slant on a hill than I wanted to deal with when transferring to and from my wheelchair to the car.  PFI looked interesting.  They are a bulk seller for restaurants and smaller markets.  I am sure there was something there I needed!

Yesterday’s trip to Costco for five items resulted in a trunk full of food and paper products.  We also got tubs of fresh grapes and strawberries along with a bag of avocadoes.  I won’t be back for awhile!

I am grateful for my choices of grocery stores and the amazing fresh produce contained within them.  

A Jumble of Psychosocial Good Things


I am happier today than I have been for the vast majority of my life.  I have done thousands of hours of work on my emotional chaos to get to this serene state of mind.  Most of that time was spent going to meetings, working with others, reading, and psychotherapy. 

It is a huge success that most alcoholics like me never come close to achieving.  They are simply not willing to do the work.  It is a huge leap of faith to believe that the payout will be worth the effort—no matter how much heinous pain they are in when not doing the work.  A lifetime of living in fear is not easily overcome.

Thanks to working with others, I get to see miracles happen right before my eyes.  Lea started taking methadone a month ago.  She has 26 days of not using street drugs, has been going to a meeting everyday and is doing great.  Greg has 19 days and wentto two full meetings on Friday and Saturday.  He is weeks ahead of his typical relapse/recovery timeline where it takes him at least a month to get back to meetings.  Michelle has 25 days clean and will be getting out of rehab next Saturday.  

I have found a sense of camaraderie, self-esteem and social status as we all work together to make a better life for ourselves and others.

I am grateful for my happiness, serenity and friends.

Replacing Sarcasm with Loving Kindness


My best (only?) response when talking with others used to be sarcasm.  I thought I was being witty and humorous.  In recovery’s hindsight, I can see where I was simply consumed by fear of emotional intimacy and cruel.

Today I show up in my life as a much kinder and gentle person.  I still like witty wordplay, but now it is usually at the expense of my ego on the humorous folly of my own shortcomings.

I am grateful for my loving kindness today.  My relationships have all improved as a direct result of being kind and letting go of my sarcastic fearfulness.  I have compassion and empathy for others.  

Being Restored to Sanity


AA’s second step is Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.  An unspoken message in this step is that I was insane.  That simple concept works really well for this complicated person.  I don’t have to figure out the hows and whys my life became unmanageable in detailed psychobabble.  “I am insane” greatly simplifies the problem.  Then it becomes a matter of working on the solution.

I have watched and listened to other alcoholics not in the program try to explain the logic of their addiction.  Invariably they get stuck in incomplete circular logic that degenerates into the logical equivalent of  psychobabble gibberish.  These tortured souls spend WAY too much time thinking about the problem and are not focused on a/the solution.

It is a bit like needing to build a road across a river.  Bridges were invented long before plate tectonics and geology were fully developed sciences.  It does not matter how the river got there, the solution s is building a bridge to the other side of the river.

I am grateful for my insanity that greatly simplifies my problem of addiction allowing me to be focused on the solution of building my bridge to recovery.


Letting Go of Anger and Resentment


I used to nurse a resentment like it was an orphan calf that had lost its mother—feeding it, checking up on it and making sure its growth was unimpeded.  Today I use a different approach.  When I am angry or resentful the problem lies with me.  In my mind, somebody else hurt or wronged me causes the pain.  Today I know that I am the one that suffers from my inappropriate response.

Evaluating the cause of my pain, I find it is always from one of two fears: fear of not getting what I want or fear of losing something I already have.  I have learned awareness, acceptance and action.  I am aware of my pain, accept that it is a problem for me and then take action to avoid having continue to be a problem for me.  It rarely happens in the time it takes to read this paragraph.   It is fantastically better than how it used to be.

I am grateful for my healthier responses to anger and resentment that I have learned in recovery.


Laughter with others


Somewhere in my life’s experiences, being stoic seemed like a reasonable way to show up.  I was full of self-pity and too fearful to talk about it.  Thanks to the miracle of recovery, I have much laughter and happiness in my life.  That is a lot better than how it used to be.

For example, my brother died when I was 15 on a day that I have long considered to be the worst day of my life.  I did not know how to process grief.  In hindsight, going to school the next day was not the best way to handle my grief and loss.  Years of Alanon recovery eventually taught me that getting paralyzed in a logging accident when I was 22 was a worse day.  (There is a bit of cause-and-effect there in that had not the first thing happened, I would not have been such a hurt angry young man taking out my pain by beating the crap out of the trees in the forest.)

Now I have useful powerful tools to process my emotional pain so that it can be treated in healthier ways besides being stuck in stoicism.  The best way to get my emotional pain to stop hurting so much is to stop letting it negatively impact my will, my thoughts and my life from this day forward.  There is much grief and loss in my life.  That sucks.  

Laughter with friends during shared moments of joy and over the foibles of our morbid reflection is one of the best tools and feelings I have in my life today.  It is not the laughter at the pain of others creating distance in relationships, it is laughter with others over our foolish responses to pain creating intimacy in our relationships.

I am grateful for the laughter with others in my life today.

Varilite Cushion for my Wheelchair


As a daily wheelchair user with no sensation in my lower body, it is vital that I have a cushion that distributes the pressure of my weight as evenly as possible.  A Varilite air-foam cushion works the best for me based on both years of practical experience and a pressure-mapping evaluation at Harborview PT 8 years ago.

A simple pneumatic cushion like a partially filled balloon would have a built-in feedback loop pushing me off to the side I was leaning towards.  That would be adverse seating stability tending to throw me out of my wheelchair every time I leaned over.  A foam cushion does not have the mechanical ability to evenly distribute the pressure. 

The Varilite is a combination of hi-tech foam and pneumatic properties that has the weight distribution of air combined with the seating stability of foam.

I am extremely grateful for the even pressure distribution of my Varilite cushion.  It is literally the difference bedrest for pressure sores vs being out and about in my wheelchair.

RIP Maggie Thatcher, The Iron Lady


Former Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher has died "peacefully" at the age of 87 after suffering a stroke while staying at the Ritz hotel in central London.

Lady Thatcher was Conservative prime minister from 1979 to 1990. She was the first woman to hold the role.

She will not have a state funeral but will be accorded the same status as Princess Diana and the Queen Mother.

The ceremony, with full military honours, will take place at London's St Paul's Cathedral.

The union jack above Number 10 Downing Street has been lowered to half-mast.

Her government privatized several state-owned industries and was involved in a year-long stand-off with unions during the Miners' Strike of 1984-5. She was also in power when the UK fought a war following Argentina's invasion of the Falkland Islands in 1982.

During her later years in office she became increasingly associated with Euroscepticism. She is also seen as one of the key movers behind the fall of communism in eastern Europe.

US President Barack Obama said the world had "lost one of the great champions of freedom and liberty" and that "America has lost a true friend".

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she would "never forget her part in surmounting the division of Europe and at the end of the Cold War".

Ahead of his return to the UK, Mr Cameron told the BBC: "Margaret Thatcher succeeded against all the odds. The real thing is she didn't just lead our country; she saved our country.  "I believe she will go down as the greatest British peacetime prime minister."

A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: "The Queen was sad to hear the news of the death of Baroness Thatcher. Her Majesty will be sending a private message of sympathy to the family."

Lady Thatcher was born Margaret Roberts, the daughter of a shopkeeper and Conservative councillor in Grantham, Lincolnshire, in 1925.

She studied chemistry at Oxford University and worked for a plastics company before marrying businessman Denis Thatcher in 1951.

She gave birth to twins Mark and Carol in 1953, the year she also qualified as a barrister, and served as MP for Finchley, north London, from 1959 to 1992.

Having been education secretary, she successfully challenged former prime minister Edward Heath for her party's leadership in 1975 and won general elections in 1979, 1983 and 1987.

Sir John Major, who replaced Lady Thatcher as prime minister in 1990, called her a "true force of nature".

He added: "Her outstanding characteristics will always be remembered by those who worked closely with her: courage and determination in politics, and humanity and generosity of spirit in private."


+++++++++++++++++++

Maggie Thatcher was a role model for women in politics.  Prior to her, the US had never had a woman serve as Secretary of State.  Now we have had 3: Madeleine Albright; Connie Rice; and Hillary Clinton.

I am grateful for how Maggie Thatcher changed our world for the better.  My two favorites are privatizing government businesses and the demise of the Soviet Union thus freeing Eastern Europe.

RIP Maggie, you made the world a better place for millions and millions of people.


RIP Maggie Thatcher, The Iron Lady


Former Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher has died "peacefully" at the age of 87 after suffering a stroke while staying at the Ritz hotel in central London.

Lady Thatcher was Conservative prime minister from 1979 to 1990. She was the first woman to hold the role.

She will not have a state funeral but will be accorded the same status as Princess Diana and the Queen Mother.

The ceremony, with full military honours, will take place at London's St Paul's Cathedral.

The union jack above Number 10 Downing Street has been lowered to half-mast.

Her government privatized several state-owned industries and was involved in a year-long stand-off with unions during the Miners' Strike of 1984-5. She was also in power when the UK fought a war following Argentina's invasion of the Falkland Islands in 1982.

During her later years in office she became increasingly associated with Euroscepticism. She is also seen as one of the key movers behind the fall of communism in eastern Europe.

US President Barack Obama said the world had "lost one of the great champions of freedom and liberty" and that "America has lost a true friend".

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she would "never forget her part in surmounting the division of Europe and at the end of the Cold War".

Ahead of his return to the UK, Mr Cameron told the BBC: "Margaret Thatcher succeeded against all the odds. The real thing is she didn't just lead our country; she saved our country.  "I believe she will go down as the greatest British peacetime prime minister."

A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: "The Queen was sad to hear the news of the death of Baroness Thatcher. Her Majesty will be sending a private message of sympathy to the family."

Lady Thatcher was born Margaret Roberts, the daughter of a shopkeeper and Conservative councillor in Grantham, Lincolnshire, in 1925.

She studied chemistry at Oxford University and worked for a plastics company before marrying businessman Denis Thatcher in 1951.

She gave birth to twins Mark and Carol in 1953, the year she also qualified as a barrister, and served as MP for Finchley, north London, from 1959 to 1992.

Having been education secretary, she successfully challenged former prime minister Edward Heath for her party's leadership in 1975 and won general elections in 1979, 1983 and 1987.

Sir John Major, who replaced Lady Thatcher as prime minister in 1990, called her a "true force of nature".

He added: "Her outstanding characteristics will always be remembered by those who worked closely with her: courage and determination in politics, and humanity and generosity of spirit in private."


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Maggie Thatcher was a role model for women in politics.  Prior to her, the US had never had a woman serve as Secretary of State.  Now we have had 3: Madeleine Albright; Connie Rice; and Hillary Clinton.

I am grateful for how Maggie Thatcher changed our world for the better.  My two favorites are privatizing government businesses and the demise of the Soviet Union thus freeing Eastern Europe.

RIP Maggie, you made the world a better place for millions and millions of people.


A Wide Arc of Gratitude


To the best of my ability (and memory), I read from AA’s Daily Reflections for spiritual inspiration every day.   That is a new behavior that I had not done for a half-dozen years when I last read a meditation book by Jon Kabot-Zinn on a daily basis.

With my recent writer’s block, it has become easy to cast my eyes about for writing inspiration while sitting at my PC.  Having the Daily Reflections and Alanon’s Courage to Change at hand ensures that I will do some spiritual reading every day.  The readings help me continue to improve my sense of commonality with others and my higher power as opposed to “god this” and “god that”.

For example, here is today’s, April 7th, reading the Daily Reflections:

“A WIDE ARC OF GRATITUDE

And, speaking for Dr. Bob and myself, I gratefully declare that had it not been for our wives, Anne and Lois, neither of us could have lived to see A.A.'s beginning.
      THE A.A. WAY OF LIFE, p. 67

Am I capable of such generous tribute and gratitude to my wife, parents and friends, without whose support I might never have survived to reach A.A.'s doors? I will work on this and try to see the plan my Higher Power is showing me which links our lives together.”

Amongst the many things I have learned in recovery is that none of us can do it on our own.   It is a we program of recovery based on a spiritual program of action.  I am grateful to all those people that have helped me get to where I am today starting with my sister Karen.  My parents created me life and were much help along the way both as role models and in creating a need for recovery in my life.

Yesterday, I saw Dougie while driving Lea through the parking lot of the methadone clinic.  Dougie  was one of counselors at Valley rehab in Monroe when I went 14 years ago on May 1st 1999.  I did not get a chance to say “hi”, but it was a warm fuzzy flashback to the wonderful people that first helped me get sober.

In no particular order, I am especially grateful to my closest friends in recovery: Carol; Gigi; Charlie and Margie; Greg; Merri; Sandy; and Leslee.  New friends in recovery such as Lea, Michelle and Joey have helped me get out of myself while being of service to others.

I am grateful for my recovery, higher power, and the many kind loving people that have helped me change my life for the vastly better.

Writer’s Block


Lately it has been difficult for me to come up with gratitude topics that get my writing motor revved-up enough to write a full page.  That is okay since my goal is to write every day, not write a page every day.  However, it would be nice to find something that gets me going now and then.

I had considered writing about web sites with personal information on them of a practical nature.  For example, I got a robo-call from my health care system yesterday reminding me that I had an appointment on Tuesday, but it did not say where the appointment was.  Going online, I could confirm that it was with my urologist at Harborview.

There is also a downside to having so much of my personal information online.  To me, it is a given that sooner or later I will be one of many victims of a massive data security breach which may well have already happened and I just don’t know about it.  Come to think of it, Chase Bank sent me a unsolicited new debit card one year ago.  This article http://goo.gl/ZwdoZ could explain that.

I am grateful for the good and useful online personal information web services.

Serenity


Serenity is the name of a great Joss Whedon sci-fi movie that has been described by some as a space western.  The serenity I have and am writing about is having peace of mind with who I am and what I am doing in my life today. 

As a child, I optimistically imagined I would be a jet-setting high-powered civil engineer fixing the problems of the world’s infrastructure.  In reality, I go to 12-step meetings and run errands around Bellevue.  It is not the life I imagined.  I have come to serene terms with life on life’s terms by learning how to accept my world as it is and do what I can to help make it a better place to live.

Psychotherapy, anti-depressants, 12-step programs, spirituality and positive psychology are some of the tools that I have used to create peace in my turbulent mind.  It is much better than how it used to be.

I am grateful for my serenity today.  I might also watch Serenity again tonight.  It is a good guy movie.

Neuroplasticity aka My New Birthday Present.


When I was a kid in school, we were taught that the brain had did not develop new brain cells or connections.  That myth ranks right up there with the flat-earth society for wrong-ness.  Thanks to modern imaging techniques such as MRIs, we have learned more about the brain in the last 20 years than in all previous history combined.

Our brains are a 3 pound mass of tofu-like tissue containing 1.1 trillion cells including 100 billion neurons. The brain uses 20-25% of oxygen and glucose used by our body.  These are a few facts from my new book Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom by Rick Hanson.

The gist of this book and others of its ilk is how to apply the latest brain/mind research to improve how we think and feel about our lives in a methodical manner. 

I am grateful for science research that helps me make my mind, brain and life better.

Generally Happy and Grateful


I woke up happy this morning.  That is a significant positive change from Good God, it’s morning to Good morning God.   Part of the reason I was not a morning person was dreading facing the day.  Today I got up at 6 AM to write my Gratitude blog.  Being eager for the days events to unfold is a much more pleasant way to start my day.

Sitting here thinking about a topic has lead me to think about many good things in my life, I have not come up with my usual specific topic beyond being grateful for my Gratitude blog and the god-given motivation to write each morning.

I am grateful for my gratitude.

Having a Car


I have purchased one brand-new car in my life.  It was a 2-door Dodge K-car in the Fall of 1981.  It was nice having a new car.  I lived in Washington, Hawaii and California with that car. The interior wore out faster than the rest of the car due to being pounded by getting my wheelchair in and out of the car.  I drove from Canada to Mexico, Hawaii to Florida in that car.  Aside from running out of gas once and having a dead battery from leaving the lights on, it never left from stranded.  It was a very reliable car.

I bought one more late model convertible that was two years old.  Since 1990, I have purchased older cars with relatively low mileage—essentially grandma’s last car.  The price is good, they have been well-maintained, not abused and are in excellent condition.  I drive them to their death.  They are still running, but the interior is so beat-up that they are not worth fixing.

My current car is my favorite car ever for driving.  It is a 1993 Mercury Cougar with an unusual red/pink color and gray upscale interior.  It is a quiet comfortable car that has been very reliable for me.

I live on a hill that I could easily “walk” away from in my wheelchair.  Getting home would be an altogether different proposition.  I always take my car on even the shortest of trips such as meetings at the Alano Club—which is only 10 blocks away.

Today I am taking Lea to the methadone clinic, a meeting and then to a doctor.  It sure beats being stuck at home without a car.  Getting out of myself and my apartment is a much better way for me spend my days.

I am EXTREMELY grateful for my cars that have provided convenient reliable affordable transportation making my world a much bigger place than I could get to on public transportation. 


The Road of Happy Destiny


The first sentence of Chapter 7 Working with Others is “Practical experience shows that nothing will so much insure immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics.” 

For most of my nearly fourteen years of working 12-step recovery on AA, I was a service junkie for GSO committees at the local District and Intergroup level in an effort to stay sober while—in theory—working with others.  In practice, I was all-too-often isolating at home hiding behind my keyboard avoiding intimacy with others.  My ego, fears and lack of humility all worked to prevent me from feeling truly connected with others. 

My service work undoubtedly helped many other alcoholics find recovery and stay sober in the halls of AA.  I did a lot of really good things to help still suffering alcoholics in my community and the greater Seattle area.  Unfortunately that was not enough to keep me sober.

After an extended period of using last year, it was clear that I would have to change my way of doing service work.  I have stopped all GSO committee service work and now work one-on-one with other alcoholics.   As the result of working with others, I am now happier and more serene.  Hopefully I will never relapse again.  Statistically, it is likely that I will.  Either way, I know how to find my way to the halls of AA, be of service to and identify with other still suffering alcoholics.

I am grateful for: my sobriety; progress in my recovery; increased honesty and intimacy; and for the joy I get in watching the progress of those that I am helping.