SATURDAY GRATITUDE ROUND-UP
|The Spawn of Satan Gratitude Extravaganza | One Year and Six Months (Almost) |Drawing Lines | Fear and the Bear | Crazy Train | When the Old Password Doesn't Work | Much, Much More |
I’m grateful for a sunny Saturday morning. I’m grateful for letting “what is” poke through my own clouds. I’m grateful for learning to accept “what is.” I’m grateful for people who listen. I’m grateful to be where I am. I’m grateful to be sober today.
It’s the First of July, a monument to the obviously accelerating passage of time and to a Conference-Recognized, Alcoholics Anonymous Approved, Anniversary:
Jane has 18 months of sobriety today.
That’s a pretty big, f***ing deal. I think Jane is slightly unhappy with the way she is represented on my phone. She’s listed as “ Jane A.A.” and then there is a black heart next to her name.1 When we chat, I often greet her along the lines of, “Hello, Jane of Alcoholics Anonymous.” She usually, more or less, good-naturedly, requests that I stop doing that. Of course, I ‘m not going to stop. I was and am an older brother. You know how we roll.
But that’s not why I will insist on pursuing my dumb joke to the gates of Hell—It’s actually because I can’t think of too many other people who so completely embody the Program of Alcoholics Anonymous. She summoned the courage to walk down the grungy stairs to the 79th Street Workshop, had that well-founded desire to flee, but found a couple of cagy alcoholics had already closed the door behind her. hahaha. Gotcha.2 It’s all been uphill since then.3
Maybe that’s not exactly how it went. But here’s the thing, Jane lives the Program. She goes to a lot of meetings, she chairs a meeting, she has plowed through the Steps and she writes here twice a week. Jane helps a lot of people. If someone came to me and asked how to get sober, I think I’d just point to Jane and say,
Do what she did.
Happy 18 Months, Jane!4
Last Week on TFLMS:
Bonus: Last Week’s Round-Up
(now it’s two weeks of gratitude/one tiny email)
Someone shared their contact with me way back then. That’s beyond the capabilities of me and my IT crew of Infinite Monkeys.
I’m actually jealous of Jane’s sobriety date. 1.1.22. Seriously.
That’s a good thing.
Did you know that Choices on 78th Street has glow-in-the-dark chips?
Woo! Happy 18 months, Jane!
Sober since 2015. Each day is a gift. See things with potency, clarity and love ❤️