Blog for July 5th, 2021
Summer Daze
This last week our lil’ boy came home from his travels where he seen his sisters, niece and Nana. I was so glad to get him back home and as we settle in with him again the activities seem to be mounting with our maskless summer,Yay! It’s certainly the crazy, hazy daze of Summer, isn’t it?
Happy 4th of July, I hope everyone got to celebrate in the style they are accustomed to and enjoyed your family and friends and of course, your freedom. Hold on to that, all of that, it is precious and life sustaining.
As I write this, I am getting ready to pack for a family reunion I will be attending this next week. I’m so looking forward to hanging out with my brother, sister and lots of nieces and nephews and of course my kids and grandkids.
The cool thing about my family is that a lot of us are clean and in recovery. And also, many of my family practice their faith and are very family oriented. I love that. I know it’s not everybody’s cup of tea, but it works for us.
I’ve been thinking of those summers when we used to stay up for days, pulling all-nighters. We’d sleep all day and use all night, playing zilch, dominoes or whatever. Also, we’d be sure to get that last run into the liquor store before they’d close.
Lord knows what our conversations were about, but I remember there was a time when we didn’t like one of the liquor store clerks and talked about how we were gonna get her. Geeze, we were crazy, we never did “get” her, but I did notice that we were getting more and more intolerant and aggressive towards other human beings.
Thank God I don’t have to spend my summers like that anymore, I’d much rather travel and hang out with my family and friends. Go to the mountains, the beach, camping, concerts, fun times with my people. Just being with them in the summer daze of it all.
I know I’m making it sound like we’re all hunky dory, but that’s not entirely true. We know sorrow, pain, separation. We know loss, fear and uncertainty in our lives. Sometimes, we have been the ones who caused harm and aggravation to others. ( that’s where the 9th step comes in).
As I said, many of us are in recovery, that means that many of us used and drank to great excess. We have lost family members and tons of friends a long the way. We have had cancer and heart & lung disease take some of our family way too young.
With all of that, we have also experienced joy, fun, genuine feelings and care. If you know sorrow, you’ll know joy, if you know pain, you’ll know freedom, with loss, you’ll know comfort & gain. With fear, you’ll know peace and with hate and discontent, you’ll find love and concern.
These are just some of the observations I have in dealing with my family. It’s not all sunshine and lollypops, but all the bad has helped us to learn to draw out the good. To relish our time together, to honor and defend each other, to the bitter ends.
I am hoping that you are getting to enjoy your family and friends throughout these summer days. Stay cool, free and clean. Be safe my peeps.
Question of the week: How are you enjoying your recovery and summer?
This prayer came to mind as I was writing, because once you have known hatred, injury, doubt, despair, darkness and sadness to the deep levels that only addiction can offer, you will be forever grateful when you are clean and find recovery and also find Peace, Love, Pardon, Faith, Hope, Light, Joy and then be able to console & pardon others with love and gratefulness that God has granted us, just for getting clean!
St. Francis Of Assisi
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
Where there is injury, pardon
Where there is doubt, faith,
Where there is despair, hope,
Where there is darkness, light,
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, not so much to be understood as to understand, not so much to be loved, as to love; for it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, it is in dying that we awake to eternal life.
St. Francis Of Assisi
Awesome!!! The stories we could tell…. and the ones we don’t dare speak of, and we survived. It makes us reflect on many things. We talk about a Higher Power, God and Guardian Angels. So many times we should have been dead or worse. We survived but for what purpose? To carry the message, we don’t have to live that way, we can and do recover, we were always loved even though we didn’t know it. Out of the darkness and into the light. We are truly blessed. God gave us our families to love and cherish. This is an awesome blog. Love you my Bff!
Yep, the stories we could tell, God is good, that’s a for sure. Thanks for your support and comment, love you.