Softly and serenely Sunday...

I know that means different things to different people. For me, being at home, listening to the chicks in the next room (they're getting big and rowdy--time to go outside soon!!), sitting in my quickly vacuumed house, smelling the granola toasting in the oven, and waiting for my husband to get here with my sister. I have hamburger buns raising in the kitchen, and we're going to have grilled garden burgers and grilled whole ear corn and some fresh asparagus today.  It's quiet and I have some lovely instrumental music playing. I have some leftover German chocolate cake for dessert, so nothing to do in that department. lol

    I realize more and more every day, to be thankful in a big way for all the little things in my life that make it so worthwhile, so full of love, so bearable (even when things aren't going the easy way).  Maybe  especially when things aren't going the easy way.  Life is always about the little things...I read a quote once that said Not everybody can do great things, but EVERYBODY can do small things with great love.  And so I try to do all the small things I can do, and do them from my heart.

  I have one big dark purple flower on my clematis at the corner of the front porch.  I treasure that one first bloom more than I ever do when it's loaded with flowers, for some reason.  The first spring peepers, the first time when I learn something new,  the first snowfall...all marking transitions into the next phase of the seasons or my life or whatever. Something special about those times, and sometimes makes me forget about the magick and beauty of all the other things that are always with me on a daily basis.

  Yesterday I met someone special. I think. In my gut, I know.  You know how it is when you are listening and hear that twing of a connection and can't wait to get next to that person. To talk and to listen and to know them. It was like that. We exchanged phone numbers and we shall see if a friendship grows from this encounter.  Even if it doesn't, I am glad to have made her acquaintance.  At my age, it seems like there aren't a lot of new friends out there to be made, though that even sounds silly as I type it. But--it feels that way sometimes...

  ...well, it's about 5 hours later than when I started this. More than that, maybe. My sister has come and gone and we had a nice dinner and a nice visit. Her husband came and got her to take her home, so I didn't have to drive down there after all. Nice...a whole day of staying home. I did a little cleaning but not too much. made a nice batch of granola and a gorgeous bunch of hamburger buns.  Seriously, if you ever make these things, you'll be hooked and you'll never buy store buns again. I don't think I'll do the veggie burgers on the grill again though...it was almost too much. But the corn was awesome as usual and the asparagus was a treat as well.

   I'm feeling the need for some popcorn...and maybe watch a little tv if I can find something on worth watching. Reading a Patricia Cornwell book right now, Black Notice...one that seemed to have gotten past me, as I've read a great many of her books. Not the one about Jack the Ripper though--somehow that doesn't interest me at all. lol  I'm about halfway through it, so if there's nothing on tv, I'll just read.  I picked up 3 more books at a yard sale over the weekend too...so I'm [pretty stocked up with things to pass the time. lol

  Hope everyone's weekend was good and that you'll be looking forward to the first Monday of the week with a glad heart.  I have a couple of things that have been being shuffled from list to list for a few days that I absolutely HAVE to accomplish tomorrow...so my plan is pretty much made.

  Blessings and love

  Namaste.

What's in a Monday?

The storms have passed for today, I think. Leaving a trail of destruction, the whipping winds knocked limbs and branches off trees and scattered things around the yard. I was lucky to finish filling the 50+ gallons of spring water and pulling in the driveway this afternoon just as it was starting. My son was here earlier and said it is supposed to rain the next 4 days. wowsa.

• The world always feels so clean and fresh after the storms. I love that.
• Fred the dog has a new home. (See my other blog, akannie@wordpress) Yippee. Spread the love!
• Tomorrow I am lunching with my baby sister and then hitting a potluck for supper. WooHoo!! No cooking all day!!!!
• I am having a time with something, and a drink hasn't even entered my mind.
• I have been weepy all day, and the tears feel cleansing.
• I'm glad I know that This too Shall Pass.
• I'm grateful to have friends I can lean on sometimes.
• I'm blessed to be a pretty healthy old girl.
• Other people are living life on life's terms, and showing me how it's done.
• I'm obsessing over a follower on this blog who has removed their name. Can't figure out who it is...or why. lol
• I have NEVER been good at MYOB.
• My sister is coming in a couple of weeks. I haven't seen her in a while.
• I have a niece who is drinking like crazy, and I want to hit her upside the head.
• I haven't done it.
• But I want to.
• I read about a wonderful place near where I used to live in California. I want to go there.
  
• Just for today, I'm not running away.
• Just for today, it isn't necessary for me to drink away my problems.
• I'm especially blessed....and I need to remember that.

Namaste.

Fellowship on a Friday...

It as a lovely and bittersweet meeting tonight, to memorialize the passing of our fellow and friend, Raymond W. He struggled with this stuff for a long time. He finally had a couple of years under his belt, for the first time in the 20+ years he'd been coming around AA, and then he got drunk again around Christmas time. And then he couldn't get sober and stay that way again. He passed earlier this month from a goofy accident, falling in the bathtub and breaking his neck.

Adios, Amigo....

On a lighter note, we had 4 kittens born sometime late night/early morning today. There are 4 of the tiny helpless creatures and they are little beauties. Mama is in good spirits and seems to have survived the birthing process very well with no human aide or intervention. (Imagine that...)

The meeting tonight was a nice blend of people who have been in and out, like Ray was, and strangers who knew him a little, and the regulars who had various and assorted stories to tell about him and his generous heart and loving spirit. When I heard he had died, my honest first thought was "His fight is over." I haven't cried about his loss, really, but tonight as I shared I got a little choked up and teary eyed. I'm a better person for having known this kooky guy, and he taught me more about God in the scant 5 years I've known him than I have learned in the preceedng 50.

On the way home, hubby said...I sure get tired of having to attend the funerals and memorials of people in AA....I knew just what he meant.

I am emotionally drained tonight and will be off to bed in a minute. I am so very grateful for the alcoholics, drunk and sober, who walk through my life on a daily basis. And most especially the ones who leave their footprints on my soul. I am grateful to have been Grandma Annie tonight for my little 2 year old daughter of a sponsee, whose real grandma died just after Thanksgiving. I got to hold her on my lap and play and love her all up. It was good for both of us, I'm sure. I am grateful to have been able to see someone tonight who looked at me in amazement and said LOOK--I just found this card you gave me with your phone number on it over 4 years ago ! I was going to call you tonight... I'm trying so hard to get sober again....

I'm grateful to have an unending source of love and caring in my life today. I'm grateful for music and spring and unanswered prayers.

I'm especially blessed today, to be sober. And as long as I don't forget that, I will be okay.

Night all....I am bone tired.

Namaste.

Simply Saturday

[ Muffin...the mama-to-be that took up residence in our garage]

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Husband and I watched a movie tonight...a documentary, I guess, called Young at Heart, which is the group's name. It's about a choir of elderly people who live in North Hampton, Massachusetts. They sing and perform all over the world now. The oldest one was 96 and the youngest was a mere 70. If you can find it, I highly recommend it. It was the most moving and heartwarming thing I have seen in a long time. They sing everything from punk to hip hop to jazz to folk. It was a hoot watching them sing Purple Haze.... they perform in halls and in jails and in nursing homes I guess. It had me laughing hysterically one minute and tears running down my cheeks the next.

Then we watched the other movie he brought home...wait for it...Mummy III--oh god--will it ever stop ????? It was actually quite fun, though the new actress is no Rachel Weiss...but she did okay.

I have 2 cats with the sniffles and sneezes. One puppy that chewed up a stick in the living room like a beaver. A bird that has started whistling for the dogs every time things quiet down. 2 dogs that are totally uninterested in anything puppy has to say, no matter how insistently and loud she has to say it. And a new stray pregnant kitty. Well, kinda new. This is a crazy house.

I woke up this morning to an outdoors covered in snow. It wasn't much, just enough to make everything look so pretty. Just enough to make the dogs paws good and wet so they could come back in and track up the hardwood floors I just mopped yesterday. sigh...Not to mention hubby's boots. I have had to sweep the floors twice today to pick up the big chunks of mud. It's no wonder my house is just clean enough to keep the health department from shutting me down. lol

I am getting revved up about the upcoming gathering of friends of BillW this summer at my house. Anyone from 'round these parts that's interested in coming, please send me your email and I'll send you the official up-to-date-information Evite. We have these every year and we always have a ball. It's so cool to meet friends from forums and blogs face to face. There has not ever been one weird thing happen, which seems to be the worry of some folks. Not ever, in 7 years. I think my email addy is somewhere on this blog, isn't it?? lol

I'm feeling all contented and happy and sober and warm (27 degrees here). This is all I ever wanted when I was out there all those years ago. Looking at the blessings in my life doesn't demand any kind of long distance stuff these days. It's all right here, right in front of me. Family, friends, and that "attitude of gratitude" that you guys give me on a daily basis. What does she say in "Freedom From Bondage" ??

" The great experience that released me from the bondage of hatred and replaced it with love is really just an affirmation of the truth I know: I get everything I need in Alcoholics Anonymous-everything I need I get- and when I get what I need I invariably find that it was just what I wanted all the time."

So, the blessings just keep on coming, as long as I stay sober.

God's got a DEAL for drunks that don't drink....

Namaste.