Today was my sister Karen’s birthday.
I had flowers delivered via an Australia version of FTD Florists. She is on the far side of the international
date line and so in effect her birthday was yesterday.
I celebrated Karen’s birthday with Lea and Michelle by having an early
Thanksgiving dinner. We had succulent roast turkey, garlic mashed potatoes,
broccoli, homemade gravy, potato salad and jellied cranberry sauce. I made the turkey, mashed potatoes and
gravy. They all came out great.
For the last 6+ years, I have gone with Carol and a few of her friends
to her church’s Thanksgiving meal. Last
year they ran low on food by the time we got there. Michelle and I tried to buy a turkey the day
after Thanksgiving at Safeway. They did
not have a turkey in the store. This
year we beat the rush by having a Thanksgiving meal two weeks in advance.
We have a lot to celebrate. A
year ago, I was still using. Lea and
Michelle were tearing it up. Now I have
almost 8 months, and they have 33 and 28 days respectively. They both registered for college this
week. Lea is getting her new dentures
next Wednesday. I had promised to help
her get dentures 15 months ago in August.
It feels great to make and see a promise come true. That is a new experience for me.
We had a great week in a things-are-going-well sort of way. Nobody won the lottery, we made some progress
and had a few boo-boos. While meeting
with Charlie and Mike at the mall this morning, I brought up how in the past a
feeling of success would be so disconcerting that I would need to do some
self-destructive equivalent of putting my hand on a hot stove just to change
the way I feel—not for the better, just to quickly change the way I felt. A feeling of contentment and success used to
be strange, uncomfortable and scary for me.
Today I noticed that sensation and acted on it by not going
swimming. That is a lot less
self-destructive than how it used to be.
Fantastic progress, definitely not perfection.
I secretary a beginner’s meeting at the Alano Club on Friday
mornings. Normally I read the Daily
Reflections aloud, share my thoughts and open the meeting. Today I read the Reflection, read two paragraphs
from The Language of the Heart on the
11th step written by Bill W and then opened the meeting. At the end of the meeting, I was compelled to
share a summary of our last year and where we are now.
When I was a young man, I had a dog that I would leave outside &
alone for 5 days at a time while I worked logging at Mt St Helen's. He was a giant Irish Wolfhound and plenty
capable of fending for himself with a large bucket of dog food to last him all
week. Being responsible for helping
others is a completely new experience for me. I have never been married, had
children or even ever spent time around children. I could barely take care of myself.
Today I get to help others make infinitely healthier choices in their
lives. Now a bad decision is to skip a swim
session after having swam five times already this week.
I am grateful for the miracles of progress in my life including my
sobriety, Lea and Michelle’s sobriety, good friends, being able to pay my
bills, a good albeit geographically distant relationship with my sister, and being able to celebrate
Thanksgiving two weeks early during November which is gratitude month in AA. Happy Birthday Karen!
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