Boxing Day

I am super happy to be heading back to the gym this morning, then back to work. I hope to have a salad for lunch. I hope to get back to some austerity. I have had it with the wretched excess that Christmas ends up being - if you socialize at all.... which, thank God, I do today.

I took the picture above at the park where I "ran" yesterday. I put the "run" in "quotes" because you can see what I was "running" on, it was hazardous! I went 10 days without running and yesterday afternoon, I just couldn't take it anymore. I went to the park and managed to log 3 very slow miles. While trying to get around someone on the trail, we both looked up and realized we knew each other! I ran into an AA friend on the trail! We talked for a minute, and when I walked away I thought about our conversation and realized he is drinking. That is so sad because he is such a neat young man. I talked to his sponsor last night and he confirmed that this wonderful young man IS drinking again. I will pray that he finds his way back to the rooms.

I had a very nice Christmas. It is wonderful to have small children around on Christmas. It is wonderful to have a church to go to on Christmas. It is wonderful to be able to hit a 6:30 a.m. meeting on Christmas Eve, and Christmas Morning - and a 5:30 p.m. meeting on Christmas Day. It is wonderful to have the phone ring so many times, because there are people who care enough to call me.

Well, I am heading out of here now to the gym... I will enjoy it now because I have to avoid that place for the first 6 weeks of the year - with all the "resolutioners". I always wish them the best and I am glad they are there, but they sure do crowd up the place and then they vanish after the middle of February.

"We did not always come closer to wisdom by reason of our virtues; our better understanding is often rooted in the pains of our former follies. Because this has been the essence of our individual experience, itis also the essence of our experience as a fellowship." -- As Bill Sees It, p. 31