Made it!

Well I made it to my six year mark and a day at a time I can't wait to see what year seven is going to bring!!  I know it will be a mix of good and bad, that is life on life's terms after all.  Moments of pure joy and gratitude as well as moments were I questions everything I believe and work for. 

Today I have choices though about how I will deal with things.  Even how I anticipate them.  I can wake up each morning and let the negative thoughts call the shots "oh the weather is bad, I have so much work to do, I have such a long day at work,  ............"  I could give you a full list of all the negative thoughts and fears but choose not to stir the nest so to speak.  I try really hard to stay out of that neighborhood in my head.  To much like Hotel California!! 

Instead I try each day to reach for the good stuff.  Through work and persistence the past few years doing that has paid off.  I really do find a simple joy in each day.  Bright red berry's that stand out in a gloomy day.  It is not a million dollars but it is still pretty nifty.  An unexpected text or phone call from someone I love.  My mom laughing when I come home at night "Hi  home I'm Honey" (I don't know why that tickles her but it does!! ) My dad talking about the meeting he went to or golf game he played.  Pictures of the wonderful amazing babies. 

As my friend Peter says, "Today is a Good Day"

Earth People

For those that don't already know, my dad comes with me to just about all the open meetings. Dad is also a " earth person ". He is not a alcoholic.

Dad started coming with me a month or so into my sobriety. I would come home from meetings and head into his room. We watched a lot of CSI ..lol In between shows I would talk. Talk and talk and talk. I would talk about what I heard at the meeting, what I learned at the meeting, what I did not like at the meeting. Dad would listen, and sometimes ask questions. But I would have a hard time trying to explain. How do you explain AA to a earthling?

So dad started coming to meetings with me. He wanted to understand, he wanted to help. He loved me that much. I know for a fact that neither of us expected the journey we ended up on, together. We are still trying to figure it out!!!!

What I do know is that I see changes in my dad. Through coming to the meetings dad has opened up a entire new world for himself. He has made friends with people he never would have met. He is using what he hears in AA to make changes in himself. He will use the fact that he is not an alcoholic at times to skate on some of the self cleaning .... lol But for the most part he is trying to incorporate the principles of AA and the 12 steps in his life.

Dad has been going to church on a daily basis for about 7 or 8 years. He believes in God. Yet, it was just recently that he really started to "turn it over". He finally got it. If you give it over to God, well then you don't have to worry about it anymore. That's AA working in his life, for him.

Dad still comes to meetings with me. He gets me to go to meetings when I might have skipped. He still supports me and is there to listen to me when I need to talk. When we go tot he beginners he still says "Ron in support of Kris". But it is so much more. Its not just support of me, it is support of so many. People count on seeing dad at the meetings.

What dad would like to do most now is find a way to share what HE has learned with families of alcoholics. Kind of give them a short cut, but also try and jump start them into providing the support that could very well be life or death. As he says, before he started coming with me, he did not know what he did not know. He has turned that over to God as well.

He might be a Earthling, but I think he is hatching from his AA pod ......