And the beat goes on... both positively and not so much. A cousin back east recently shared the successes of her grandchildren as they become adults. Another cousin, closer to home, let me know that her adorable newest grandchild has a form of eye cancer and just got fitted with a port for chemo. She's a sweet child, just a toddler... again and again, you just never know.
In the beat going on and on and on department, an old friend pointed out that our high school class of 1972 turns 72 years old this year. Dear God, we blinked a few times and are now old people. We'll gather for a very casual get together at the park where a lot of us smoked pot and drank the cheap wine we'd stolen from the corner market. We were a class of 500 (baby boomers) with close to 100 passed on, accidents soon after graduation, a couple of people from the AIDS epidemic, illnesses, suicide... Many have moved, out of state or out of country, and many are here in the old neighborhood or nearby. I was definitely a park-rat in high school - got good grades, but spent most non-class time getting high or smoking cigarettes. Thanks to lessons learned in sobriety, I'm one of the gatherers, with the email list and Facebook site, the one with the stick-to-it-ivness that makes me great for the task of invites. Who would've thought, in those long ago days when I craved attention but wanted to be invisible? I ran into a friend who was getting ready to take his 93 year old dad to Texas for his high school reunion, likely only 2 alumni left. I wonder how long my group will keep meeting, as our numbers and health decline.
It is sweet and a little eerie to see those I've known since I was a kid, or, in the world of AA and Alanon, those I've known in the rooms for decades. I was with friends listening to music in the park last weekend. A woman and I kept eyeing each other, then realized we'd gone to Alanon together pre-covid. I recognized another woman at a meeting recently who'd been out for 10 years, just now making her way back. And, the guy with 5 days I mentioned last week was at the meeting again, this time with 11 days! Keep coming back (stay - it's easier)!
And then, I just learned that someone from my former home group died last autumn. I didn't know him well, but we sat around the same table for years. He was only 76. There was a time that would've sounded ancient. These days, not so much. The beat goes on, until it doesn't.
I get Sermons on the Couch, a weekly email of inspiration and information. This week the author reminds me that somewhere there is someone who'd give anything for the ordinary day I've woken up to, with the encouragement to celebrate, even quietly, the beauty of this life in all it's glory and pain, excitement and boredom and everything in-between. One day at a time, one day at a time.
How do you both acknowledge the passage of time and live in the moment? What are you grateful for today, both big and small?
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Feeling like an inventory, or a deeper dive into your program? The NOW WHAT workbook is 78 pages of topics and processing questions, great for solo exploration or in a small group. Go to the WEB VERSION of this blog page for the link on ordering (PDF for those outside the U.S., or who prefer it, or hard copy mailed to you).
Contact me at SoberLongTime@soberlongtime.com or shadowsandveins@gmail.com with questions. A reminder that the workbook is available at Portland Area Intergroup, 825 NE 20th. for local folks. And Jackie, of TMar, has a supply as well, if you're at a conference where they have a table
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