Gratitude List #103

Peace and blessings!

I am alive and well, no worse for the holiday hubbub as yet.  Today I am grateful for my friends, my job, the sunny sky and cold air, chocolate and soap, foreign accents, laser printers, the serentiy that comes with knowing that I am not responsible for everyone else’s happiness, black and red pens, roller coasters, my eyes and teeth, overcoats, cold spring water, scarves and boots, tape, laundry lines, my father’s good health and wisdom, my sister who is expecting her first baby, slim and bulbous Christmas lights, life itself, the Serenity Prayer, my own good health, that I will never be wealthy (really, I am grateful for this!), paper and parchment and medieval books, and eye glasses.

And so much more, but I will write later in the week!

Gratitude List #101

I am grateful for the material things in my life, but even more so for the serenity that I feel for having gotten sober.  This is a great gift, and it not only makes the other gifts possible but makes appreciation for them possible as well.  It is a clear, cold, beautiful sunny day!  It is a great day to be alive! It is a great day not to have to worry about money, and not because I am wealthy, but because enough is enough.  I have my daily bread and that will suffice.  I have the strength to remain sober not forever, but for today, and that is enough.  What a great relief that I don’t have to drink during the holidays!  What a great relief that I can remain sober for the next 24 hours, and that I don’t have to expect more than that!  I am grateful for my freedom from the slavery to booze and feel freer everyday.

None of my business

I have to constantly remind myself that I will remain unhappy, irritable, discontented if I continue to take on responsibility that is not really mine.  There was a book written a few years ago with the title: “What you think of me is none of my business” and this is precisely what I would like to take as a motto for living.  It is just too exhausting trying to worry about what everyone around me thinks about me.  And in fact they probably don’t think of me at all most of them.  It is simply easier, saner, more reasonable to mind my own business, do what I think is necessary,  and live without all the fear and anguish.  Now, I don’t mean by this to be inconsiderate of anyone else’s feelings and think that I can give a little here and there without a problem.   Meanwhile, I will have to continue the work of turning my attention to my own business and away from the business of others.