On Life's Terms

Unless you have ever found yourself at 14,000 feet elevation, I don't think I could describe the air - the glorious, thin, dry, oxygen-free air. It is a giddy feeling - unless you have hiked to get there.

I am just devoid of ideas this morning. It has been a rough couple of days. But I have to remember that these rough days are because I love people and that can never be bad. My son and daughter-in-law are in pain over friends shot down over the skies of a foreign land. Two of my relatives are waking up in hospital beds this morning, post heart procedures done yesterday. They both are reportedly fine.

And then there is the economy. The last time the stock market tanked like this, we ended up closing half of the hospital. At the last Governing Body, the board seemed to suggest that if times got tough, closing the hospital is on the table.

It seems like a million years ago, I walked into that hospital for my job interview. I decided at that time that if I got the job, I would like to stay there until I retired. When I told that to my boss later, she laughed at me. It is now 17 years later, and I still have the same goal. But it may not come to pass.

I just know that I will be OK. With a diminished 401K, and with diminished many things, it is still OK. I am sober and God is in charge.

"Job or no job - wife or no wife - we simply do not stop drinking so long as we place dependence upon other people ahead of dependence upon God. Burn the idea into the consciousness of every man that he can get well regardless of anyone. The only condition is that he trust in God and clean house." -- Alcoholics Anonymous, p. 98