"B" IS FOR BLONG!

Selchi awarded me this ...well, this...AWARD, called "Best Blog Thinker", and I'm awed every time someone remembers me in this fashion--always so unexpected. Thank you SO much! I must postpone picking recipients for the moment, but soon...soon! Please visit Selchi HERE!

Announcement: It is with pleasure that I received the letter "B" from a very likeable 'woman'--SHAY (FireBlossom). Drop in on Shay, her blossom is blooming. The letter B will Be today's blog, my favorite "B" words, but there's only one Beethoven!

BEETHOVEN, BELOVED, AND
OTHER LETTER "B" THINGS...

B is for BEETHOVEN. During my years with Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, a goal was to play all nine of his magnificent symphonies, and after about eight years, it happened. The NINTH was on schedule, and was it ever the thrill-of-thrills for me. Even playing violin, I had goose bumps! Whenever I describe verbally to an audience, that experience, the audience gets goose bumps, they tell me so.

After his death in March 1827, documents were discovered in his desk--THREE love letters. The passionate feelings manifested in these letters were addressed to (very likely) Antoine Brentano as being IMMORTAL...

...BELOVED and The First Letter to IMMORTAL BELOVED July 6, in the morning, begins:
"My angel, my all, my very self"...

All three letters--not really lengthy--but R.E.A.L.L.Y. passionately written pourings of love from a tormented soul of the great genius, Ludwig v Beethoven.....read them here.

B is for BUDGET. WAIT! How in hell did THAT word sneak itself in here? OUT, OUT, brief budget!

Oh well, maybe, tomorrow, tomorrow, and tomorrow...will creep into this petty mind a sense of what MUST be done. Double, double, toil and trouble. Fire burn, and cauldron bubble...THAT'S RIGHT, BURN the Budget...OUT, OUT damned SPOT! If the deed were to be done, it were better it be done ANON! NOW! Burn, Budget, Burn!

B is for BABY. How I love that sweet innocence of the man-or-girl-child, surely God's gift to Himself!
The smell (well, much of the time?) the upside-down freedom of total dependence. Yes, those sweet little tax deductions--GOSH!. I hope THAT page in the budget wasn't destroyed in the budget fire....

B is for BIKES and BIKERS. Ya know, there is as much camaraderie, caring, sharing, support, and love in the biking community--did I say as much? no there's MORE!--than in a room of Alcoholics Anonymous. Just an observation, not really a judgment. I LOVE my bike, ride EVERY day somewhere--ANYWHERE! Also I love AA! -grin!

B is for BEAUTY and BEAUTIFUL. I positively could not live long without the symmetry of a lopsided tree, uneven fields of flowers, meadows bursting forth, nature untended. The same need I have for paintings, art of every type, opera, symphonies old and new, ballet, ah! yesss--poetry, of course architecture. I never saw much beauty in the male form, after all I live in one. Blah! However, another story for me is the body of the female. How could I--or any man--live without access, sighted or otherwise to the gentle curves, softness of skin, the flowing hair, the rounded--you know--those contours--the sweet voice, the touch, the occasional hug of acceptance--I'd better stop this, won't tell you why.....NEXT!!! -grin!

B is for "BIG BOOK" of Alcoholics Anonymous. It is our/my bible. The first 164 pages outline a program for living which differs from anything most of us drunks ever really knew. The solution to all my problems is NOT there, but the "HOW" to solve any and all problems IS there. It is a program of action and meditation, and all in between. And unless I am an alkie, there is no way I could EVER understand it, nor how, nor why, it works. But for those who DO it, it does work. There is simply too much evidence that this is so.

B is for BLOGGING. This has become my passion, almost embarrassingly so. Ever since my introduction to this realm of special communication, I've been hooked! I never dreamed all my life, that one day I would meet, and feel so close to so MANY! And, the funny part is, I've never met even ONE of you. Yet, I experience here a wonderful, unexplainable, deep love for you people. Again, for those who do not do this, there is no way to impart what I've found: A new and close relationship with God; A new and close relationship with people on and off-line. OK! That's enough, before I get all gooey about this.

B is for BARN. Well, the horse barn is where I had set up my music stand, stool, and small table. Yep, that's where I practiced violin for several years--before it was suitable for the human ear. In winter (this was Ohio!) i remember standing right next to Pete, my favorite workhorse, and I could feel his warmth, I can feel it now. There were always some Muscovy Ducks around , a few dogs, numerous cats, and about eight horses, oh, and two Hereford steers, which my sister and I raised for 4-H club showing at county fair. A fairly warm barn, at that. And all friends!

B is for BLUE. This is my favorite color. The sky, all shades of blue from the darkness before that flash of 'first light', to the almost darkness of 'last light'--when the sun is going down in Texas. I wear blue almost sickeningly often--every day?

B is for BACK! What a thrill! And what a gift we have, to be allowed to go back. We may look back over a span of years which have been packed with so much life, so much hurt, so much pain, so much chaos, so much blood, so much fun, so much freedom, so much LOVE. And I have reached a pointin life which never should have, nor could have happened without the Traditions, especially Tradition ONE, which makes possible the practice of the Twelve Steps. Oh what gratitude we must have. I love our directive, to "Give it away, what has so freely been given to me..." and that is the way to be grateful. Hey, let me get BACK to the B program. Aren't we about done with this?

OMG, do I have eleven? Which one to remove...Hmmmmm? WOW, this IS a Blong. Hope you stuck with me here, but I'll understand if you could not.

Let God's Peace Be with you today, and stay sober with me, as we take on the day in a "B is for BIG" kind of way!

Love, from
Steve E.