Grateful Grandmother

This is a candid shot of my granddaughter taken yesterday on our hike. She was looking out at Denver and finding landmarks and thereby figuring out where her grandfather, her uncle, and her aunt all live.

This morning I went to a meeting where there was much reality. A woman's son had a serious car accident... the man next to me had fallen asleep at the wheel last night and gone off the road at 75 mph - and was there to talk about it... a man has separated from his wife of 30 years. And I know what I say next is what people don't understand about AA, and indeed, some even HATE AA for this... but we were all so very grateful. Her son lived! He is in serious condition, but he has a mom he can count on to be there today - that was not always the case. His truck didn't rollover - even though he was going so fast and he is alive and sober to be there today. He is sober - heartbroken, hurt, devastated, but sober. He has a chance if he remains sober. If he drinks, he loses all.

Today I will take a run, and then get ready for my son coming over for lunch. After he leaves, I need to finish my homework for Biblical School. The assignments are getting harder every week, and I am really spending a lot of time reading scripture... something I never realized how much I would enjoy.

Today is Veterans' Day. I am so grateful for all the men and women of the all volunteer armed services of the United States - who have been willing to put it all on the line for what they believe in. I am particularly grateful for my son, the fact that he is home, but also for who he is. He is a wonderful man, a veteran of a foreign war, who gladly went off to do what he thought was right. I am so proud.

"On the day that the calamity of Pearl Harbor fell upon our country, a great friend of AA was walking along a St. Louis street. Father Edward Dowling was not an alcoholic, but he had been one of the founders of the struggling AA group in his city. Because many of his usually sober friends had already taken to their bottles that they might blot out the implications of the Pearl Harbor disaster, Father Ed was anguished by the thought that his cherished AA group would probably do the same. Then a member, sober less than a year, stepped alongside and engaged Father Ed in a spirited conversation--mostly about AA. Father Ed saw, with relief, that his companion was perfectly sober. 'How is it that you have nothing to say about Pearl Harbor? How can you roll with a punch like that?' 'Well,' replied the yearling, 'each of us in AA has already had his own private Pearl Harbor. So why should we drunks crack up over this one?" -- As Bill Sees It, p. 71