TUESDAY: Yesterday's Yard Work

WATERING AND MOWING

Monday, and it is finally time to just sit on the pot and do it. Mow grass, that is. As with any undertaking of this magnitude, preparation takes longer than the actual job. So I have been pulling weeds, doing engine maintenance, writing some comments, pulling weeds, doing laundry, deciding whether to attend meeting #3 this afternoon. No meeting...gonna stick with the yard, pull some weeds, and finish it up...maybe even mow the grass?

Several peeps mentioned something about the satisfaction which comes as A result of working in the dirt. I concur. I can even hang yard work on Step Twelve, as if 'work' and 'yard work' is one of our principles. Well, isn't it? I would consider working, taking care of God's world, keeping it as pretty as possible, part of God's Will for me.

Thank God also that we sprang--several years ago--for sprinklers and a well, dug and set with a pump 65 feet below the weed line. And watering the lawns is what I call "Easy Does It", since it is being implemented while I sit here and type-o. I have heard neighbors complain that their pumps make so much noise, they have trouble sleeping. Our pump sits so far below and is very quiet. I cannot hear it, and forget the water is "raining" all night, so that my problem is verrry soggy ground the next morning. I don't use the "auto" function except during water emergency.

One might perceive that today's topic is "Watering, and Mowing Your yard". However, I had another in mind, "Watering the Garden of my Program". NOTE: NOT "watering DOWN"...just watering.

Several happenings in my life were for me, the essence of growing, staying, and living sober. One I'll mention here was when Prayer Girl married me (May 27 will be 18 yrs). For these past twenty years I have marveled at how wonderful, rather "how GOOD it IS" to live with a fellow alcoholic. The Steps, Traditions, and continuing, continual discussion of recovery has become the center of our home, our universe. We have NEVER found ourselves without a "topic", so to speak! I have learned much from her, we share frequently with each other.

However, I've found that I do not learn by 'talking'. I learn by 'doing'. I learn from you "How to do it, but experience is the only real teacher here. Drinking used to be my teacher, my guru, my every waking thought, my God. (Yesss, Peeps, I did some drugggggs too, since ya just gotta know. OK?). And I became so good at being drunk, that you would never know. Experience did that for me. I found I could hide it from anyone, even myself. That is something nobody could 'teach' another.

Another "happening" which is why I am here today, is that, with my cooperation, God has kept me sober, and kept me alive--both for very long times. And I am SO grateful!

(Actually, working the Twelve Steps keeps me sober. They came from God, through you peeps and people like you--to me!)

In LOVE and Service,
Sincerely,
I remain yours,
Steve E

One thing even GOD cannot do:

that is, please everybody!