“Thanks”

Uh-oh. The last time I blogged was on Veteran’s day. Today is Thanksgiving. I’m in serious danger of becoming the holiday blogger! I wonder if that’s anything like being an Easter/Christmas catholic?

It is thanksgiving day here, a day for being with family, feasting, being grateful, and praising god for a holiday that isn’t full of buying shiny plastic shit for people who don’t need it because otherwise they’ll think you don’t love them. For the first time in a couple of weeks, I had time and desire to hit up my favorite coffee shop. But, alas, on my way there, the streets were covered with roadblocks, police cars with red and blue lights piercing the wet air, and runners. Lots of runners. Gotta admire them for getting out there in the rain, though. I ended up at another local coffee shop and am now enjoying the quiet room. It feels good to write.

Last night I was over at my folks’ house to prep Thanksgiving dinner for this afternoon. They’re both injured right now and not getting any younger. My sister had the brilliant idea for the two of us to take care of dinner this year. Our family actually does Lasagna for dinner instead of the traditional turkey. So I spent last evening putting that together under mom’s direction, a desert, and then we made a couple pumpkin pies. We actually had a good time. It’s a far cry from the days when I wasn’t communicating with my family at all.

It’d be pretty obvious to say here on my Recovery blog that today I’m grateful for my Recovery, but there’s no denying the truth of that statement. Everything about my life today, I owe to the success I’ve had in working the program. There’s the things that are easily seen, like my job, my relationship with my family, the improvements in my personal relationships with others.

But there are other benefits which aren’t visible that are even more amazing to me. Things like the peace of mind I feel, the reservoir of calm that emanates from my very being now, and the confidence I have in myself. It’s things like the ability to not take things personally, not let others’ insanity affect me, to have good boundaries and be secure in myself and the knowledge that I am okay for who I am just as I am. These are the kinds of things most people rarely find, regardless of whether they’re in the program or not.

So this is my thanks for today--thanks for a new life, for being one of the lucky ones who is surviving this deadly disease, and who had the willingness to discover that it really is true: people really can change.