Sometimes I forget about Graditude

The place where I got sober had a huge plaque on the wall that read: Make Gratitude Your Attitude. The founding members hung it on the back wall of the meeting hall just to the side of the doorway so as you left the meeting  that would be the last thing you saw.  The times when I would lead a discussion or share my AA story I would look at that plaque with those words Make Graditude Your Attitude and it was SO inspirational to me. The print was so BIG you could see it from the front of the huge meeting room. 

This is such a back to basics for me. I have strayed from my beginnings and it is time that I find my way back. Being sick with my crohn's disease flare up these past few weeks have given me the chance to reflect and has also brought so much of my old school AA thoughts and feelings back to life. It is time for me to act instead of react which is what I am going to begin to do. I will not continue to allow these outside agitators continue to live "rent free" in my head any longer. As my wife Kathy has said they can only harm us if we allow them to and I have NO intention of allowing them to any longer.

The plaque still hangs in the same place on the same wall in the same meeting hall. When I return on visits it reminds me that Graditude Should Be My Attitude in ALL aspects of my life. There is such recovery in that one single solitary word GRADITUDE.

On this the first day of fall  I decided to come outside after dinner and sit under the gazebo and look out over my yard. It is so beautiful out here and it feels as though I am so far away from the politics, and the folks on the religious right that I have this huge fear of harm from. The pleasantness of it all just warms me. 

It wasn't long before Kathy came out and joined me. She began doing little things out in the yard. Picking up dog poop, playing with Buddy, combing out Lucky Lu and Torries fur and while she was doing all this I shared with her what I was feeling and we began talking about  all we have to be grateful for.

During all this I had a profound sense of Graditude and began thinking about all the things we have together as a couple and a family. I shared out loud with Kathy that the politicians and the religious right can take what they want and they are trying to BUT the one thing they WILL and can NEVER take is our LOVE, COMMITMENT, MARRIAGE and our FAMILY from us. This gives me such a sense of GRADITUDE.

This is my life as I know it in Jillsville.