NOBODY READS LATE POSTS!

FLORIDA: THIS IS HOW WE DE-BUG 

OUR YARDS, IT'S CALLED 

"IBIS IN THE MORNING"

Do you know why many sea birds stand on one leg? 

Answer at bottom of post*

WHAT TO WRITE IN A LATE POST

WHICH NOBODY WILL READ ANYWAY?

So many subjects there are to touch. You know, I think I'll just (just? --grin!) write out a Gratitude List:

I AM GRATEFUL FOR

SOBRIETY  Mine and others, for my STAYING sober is dependent on others. It is definitely "we" who do this together. It is number ONE on my list, as you can see.

GOD  Well, of course, God's Will is primary in my life, but without sobriety, I can just throw God and all His Creation out the window.

LIFE  An do you know, I read in the Big Book, "We absolutely Insist on enjoying life." p. 132.  And Peeps, I DO that, maybe too much. But I try to know through it all, that it is God being GoooD to me. Do not ask me why?

FAMILY  When it comes down to the wire, when the race is nearing the finish line, it is usually a family member who will show their love the most and that has been proven in my family as well as a blogger in Texas--I sometimes forget the importance, the naturalness of family love.

PEEPS  There is NO WAY ON EARTH that I can give proper expression to my Gratitude for you Peeps, both far and near.  Some I have had GREAT pleasure in visiting--spending quality time of days together. Others I "meet" daily either in reading, commenting, or posting mine for you (and me). Some I email now and then--special friends! And at least one I enjoy hearing in voice calls--and with no doubt in my mind, I LOVE YOU ALL!

MUSIC  Listening to music is not my relaxation. Playing it is. The violin is my other self. Classical. And anything else. My "favorite changes daily, sometimes hourly, ranging from symphonies to standards, old and new.

MEDICINE  Thank God for dedicated doctors helping people always. Also for Cyberknife, and for TRELSTAR, a hormone injection. These have kept me cancer free (prostate) for nearly three years now.

NATURE  Maybe it is age, but I have found it so lovely to "smell the roses", literally, and actually smell everything else. And touch, and listen, and see--I'm just loving it, Peeps!

ANIMALS  A new-found interest has led me to a love I had never known, for animals--right Lucky?  He is the German Shepherd living with us now, or are we living with HIM? Hmmmm?

AA  Without AA none of the above--NONE--would be or could be possible. And, although it is certainly NOT a function of the (very spiritual) AA program, AA DID bring me back to......

CHURCH  (My opinion): This is no longer to me a simple building. It is a community of people, world-wide, extending beyond the next life into eternity.  I get to play violin occasionally at mass or other functions. And I get to sing in the choir, having only ONE month ago found that I COULD sing. My audition for the choir:

Music Director: Can you sing in tune? Yes. Can you read music? Yes.
Be here next Wednesday evening at 1830 hours for rehearsal. (I will blog about this encounter soon--it is worthy.)

My Peeps, I wish you PEACE!
My Peeps, I LOVE you all!
My Peeps, let us be SOBERLY "a part of" rather than "apart from" TODAY!

Ans. So they won't fall down!

ABOUT--YOU KNOW....ME!

SOME STUFF ABOUT ME

For two blog-days I have been seriously into the Big Book "Alcoholics Anonymous" because that is where I wanted to be. That is where I needed to be. It is comfortable for me to be studying our literature. Did anyone ever say to you, "I have forgotten more about (whatever) than you ever knew"? Statements like that used to piss me off. But you know, I believe it is possible.

I can "be into" something so much with my time, effort, thought, and work, that I am capable of losing sight of what it was about, in the first place. This happened in the catholic church I have always loved. I "forgot" that I was there to love and serve God--in the person of His people. Then I left the religion, when there seemed nothing 'for me' there. Then I learned that it is not supposed to be 'for me', it's 'not about me'! I learned that in Alcoholics Anonymous.

So, many years after, I joined back with the people of faith, and worked hard there, gave of my services daily (and more) wherever it seemed appropriate. I became so busy there, that in just three years--again--plumb forgot what it was all about. I do know now, that my own slight mission in the church has not changed. It is to share whatever I have with others, and give others--especially the elderly, the wheel-chaired--hope and comfort. It is just that I "forgot". And that leaves me here. Now.

I am most happy, most serene, most safe at an AA meeting. That is where are my true friends. Of course, there are AA members who do not like me--just a few. But even they wish me continued sobriety. I like being with friends who care, who are there, and who love. I have NOT forgotten why I am in AA. I am an alcoholic, and AA is where I belong, to live sober, to be willing to grow along spiritual lines, to trust God, to keep on cleaning house, and to help others. That's about it. That's about a LOT!

As I write a blog or mail my blogging friends I am happy, sometimes overjoyed--especially when I witness growth, change, happening right here on my monitor--with peeps who are staying sober, No Matter What. Again though, it happens that occasionally I lose sight of exactly why I am here doing this (remember the "How" and the "Why" of it from yesterday's blog?).

I began blogging "to expand my circle of friendships", to 'talk' about recovery in AA with others of like mind. I FOUND a few dozen highly intelligent persons, with sense of humor, talents for painting, guitar playing, poetry writing, and exquisite prose. And I loved what I discovered here much more than if it had been what I envisioned. And I still DO love it--all!

Is Pride rearing it's ugliness again? Well, I have dealt with Pride often enough, I know where to go. It IS in our Twelve Steps, and...and...AND in our invaluable Twelve Traditions. Just as one might before a college exam, I am doing a review of the 'whole course'. It is amazing already to me, the different perspectives which are showing themselves.

SOME GRATITUDE NOW

I AM SO GRATEFUL FOR:

God's gift to us--this AA Program

GPS (Global Positioning System), thanks to US Defense Department, (and your tax dollars)!

Cell phones

My family, and my AA family

A FIRST great grandchild to arrive August 11 in North Carolina!!! Maybe I'll get to hold this little one September 1, plus-or-minus a few days??? God, are You listening?? Hmmmmm?

Electric 12-cup coffee-makers (also 36-cup for hurricane days?)

A God Who is Trusting, Forgiving, Merciful, All-Knowing, a Loving Father--Abba, Poppa--to all.

Finally, you Bloggers. To me, this blogging is still the most AWESOME happening in my whole life! To read, comment, share, beware, care, talk, and pray together, and stay sober together. Thank you ALL, who come here today.

Peace.
Love.
from Steve

More "Gratitude List" on Saturday's blog. I have much for which to be grateful, but not much room left on this blog!

FOR SUNDAY JULY 5

HAPPY 24th SOBER ANNIVERSARY TO

PRAYER GIRL

Sunday July 5 1985, PRAYER GIRL had her last drink of alcohol. Several distilleries closed down, laying off thousands of workers. Havoc ruled on Wall Street. President Reagan issued a proclamation that the US government will begin taking over the liquor industry, to soothe unsettled national fear and nerves. The world was in panic. Should PG drink again, all would be well, that sense of ease and comfort in the world would come at once. The globe would be no longer restless, irritable, and discontented...

24 years later, the world is still restless, irritable, and discontented.

NOTE: This will be my blog until Sunday night. Thanks blog-friends, for your understanding.

STEVE'S GRATITUDE LIST
FOR JULY 2009

That Prayer Girl is happily sober 24 years Sunday July 5, 2009

That Prayer Girl has stuck by me, loved me, through these past 18 years of that sobriety

That Prayer Girl is "PRAYER" girl

That God answers her prayers, and mine...in God's time

That God put in front of me again today a man who wanted what we have

That God allowed this person to "listen"

That I realize "being grateful" means being useful in God's world

That by being very involved in Alcoholics Anonymous is for me the best showing of "gratitude" which I can imagine of

(I'm grateful to Mary Christine for showing me it's all right (legal!) to end a sentence with a preposition even though it irritates me to do so)

That an eight-months-long misunderstanding has been reconciled

That God will, when asked, melt two cold human hearts in one fell swoop

That God does not mind if I silently and happily weep

That God does for me daily what I cannot do for myself

That I can practice "acceptance" to become more "acceptable" to you Peeps and finally to God

That I realize it is not too late to get back and work on family love and unity

For many friends in many rooms of AA

For (God loves you, too!) my friend-Peeps here on the blogroll

For those who for some reason are not yet ON my blogroll

To God for giving me Flex, my Guardian Angel

For God allowing me to SO enjoy life here on earth. I never imagined such fun really existed, outside of the movies.

For being shown that I can recognize things which I am grateful for

TRIVIA

PICASSO defined art as "a lie that let's us see the truth."

SO grateful, SO happy, SO sober today am I...and I wish the same for all the blog-peeps everywhere, and for you, my special peeps right here:

Peace, and Love,

Steve E

Trivia from L.M. Boyd's "Curiosity Shop" Page 77

Cookie Meeting Plus Gratitude List

COOKIE MEETING

Last night's "Speaker-Cookie" meeting featured two long-timer guys. With about 80 years of sobriety between them, it was a surprise to most people that they just gave straight and VERY GOOD AA talks, and did not come downtown to "teach" us how to stay sober.

They are both from my morning home group which meets at 7 AM, and with them came quite a large entourage of "morning" people.

You see, the "Morning" and the "Night" people seldom mix, and so they were surprised to see ME there (my second Home Group) at night.

It is fun for me to be active in two groups. And I have something to offer each group IMO! And of course, my job is to tell a joke--to prove we are not a glum lot. It was a classic, 200 people laughed as I told that old one about the hypnotist. It IS funny! Maybe I'll blog it tomorrow, has anyone NOT heard it?

A HEALTHY LOOK BACK

Items concerning my/our personal health do leak out now and then, e.g., when I ask for prayers, as for a surgery on myself or one close to me. But on the way home from last night's speaker "cookie" (Ummmmm yes, Pam!) meeting, I found myself looking backward again, just for the sake of "being grateful for" a list of health events.

I am SO grateful:

That after having two heart attacks at the ages of 34-35, I have had no recurring heart problems through the years.

That after suffering with phlebitis, and finally the stripping of veins in both legs, I've had only minimal problems since.

That after numerous 'close calls' during certain death-defying behaviors, I'm still alive, and everything works--well, almost everything -grin!

that after severe back injury about 25 years ago, I opted to NOT have surgery, and I've been relatively free of that problem since.

That I found a wonderful doctor who replaced my thumb (ball) joint with wrapped-up tendon (my own), and I have had no problem since on that score.

That when I have problems which produce severe pain, I know a woman, a healer-type, who lays her (extremely hot) hands on me and the healing is nearly always immediate, and permanent. Lady's name is Prayer Girl--I probably should not be blogging this...

That I am careful to whom I tell these things, because even though I make them sound supernatural, they have become quite the ordinary way of life here.

That, at the end of the day, isn't nature itself supernatural; birth, death, bulbs-tulips, acorn-tree, egg-bird, water-life, H.O.W.-sobriety, and much more, maybe everything?

That after prostate cancer two years ago, and the accompanying discomforts (I 'loved' six weeks of daily radiation--it was a chance to do nothing but read, or listen to good music for a period of time each morning).

That modern medicines i.e., periodic hormone shots have kept and will keep me alive and cancer-free for years to come.

That Medicare plus a supplement (AARP) pays those bills.

That last September I had my eyeballs repaired and Restor lenses implanted--and I could FEEL the love and prayers of this group as I lay there in surgery--and can now see well without glasses, for first time in fifty years! What a miracle! Thank you peeps, AA, for sobriety and thank You, God, for faith, Hope, and Trust that "all will be well."

That children being born in this century will experience such changes in their manner of living, that neither they, nor we, dare claim to have a clue.

That there is much more on my Gratitude List, but this "health" stuff is more than enough for now.

In LOVE and service,
Sincerely.
Steve E.

OH NO!...ANOTHER "STEVE" STORY?

"GIRLS RULE"
One of these gorls is my daughter.
I'm Going on 3.5-hour bike ride
to visit her Monday and Tuesday

NOTE: Thank you to all who commented yesterday on my blog, also to those who read about the girl's suicide...and prayed with me. This is indeed a program of unselfish giving, and receiving...love.

NOTE 2: Leaving early Monday morning to visit my Firefighter/Engineer/Acting Lieutenant daughter, Kathy. Gonna 'bike' up there, about 3.5 hours, and have fun...maybe go to a meeting there.

"SEE YA IN CHURCH!"

Met a guy in church. He was sitting there, next to his--I guess--wife. I had asked him to please hand in my envelope with his own. He asked me why I don't ever play violin at the earlier mass? So I told him I go somewhere else real early in the mornings, EVERY morning. I said to him, "I'd tell you where I go, but it's an 'anonymous' place".

I smiled. He smiled.

Then he blurted out, "Are you a friend of (yeah -grin!) Bill W?" Turned out, he is sober 18 years, we just go to different meetings. It shows me how AA in Naples, FL has grown since I went to my first meeting--there were four of them each week here then. Now there are nearly 300 in the area, and it is true, just like in any of the larger cities--one can hide, become completely lost now in AA rooms here.

That's another reason a HOME GROUP is so important to me--and people I sponsor--these days. When I came into AA in Naples, everyone knew everyone else, and if ya didn't see someone for a week or two, the gossip mill generally routed or lured that person out of whatever lethargy, and back into the meeting hall.

These days I must--no, I WANT to--belong to a home group. They know all about me there--the good, the bad, the ugly..and I am all three! What a wonderful thing to be accepted into a group of 80-90 people.

These are men and women who stay silent while I ramble on about one thing or another. God, I pray for them--to not get tired or bored with me...but they probably would still listen, or in politeness, pretend. Paranoiac me: I wonder if they were just pretending this morning? -grin!

TIME FOR A LITTLE GRATITUDE HERE

I am grateful that:

1. If they don't listen to me now--I'll kick their butts!
2. I'm still able to kick their butts
3. I do not have to prove that
4. My bike gets 50 miles per gallon
5. I don't really care how many mpg it gets--I just L.O.V.E. it still, (or moving!) -grin
6. Little things don't bother me any more. HEY! WHAT DID YOU DAMN SAY????!
7. I belong to Two Home groups, a daily, and a weekly meeting
8. I only get to vote in one of them
9. Whichever I choose is OK
10.Dentist was nice to me
11. I could pay him
12. I could tell him it was too much--$350 for each filling
13. Bloggers visit my blog once
14. Some even return
15. Two friends were going to quit blogging, now are staying...I pray!
16. The blogging 'crews' from Texas, Colorado, Canada, W VA, Michigan, Illinois, NC, SC, England, S Africa, Ohio, North East, Missouri, Australia, Bahamas, Caleefohniah, Utah, and other places are all so wonderful!
17. We can trade news, views, reviews and stories, and still be friends
18. I've not met face-to-face a single blogger--wait! am I grateful for that? NO WAY! (except for one!)
19. My daughter is an 'acting' Fire Dept. Lieutenant, next in line...
20. My son is supervisor in a large company
21. My wife, family, are healthy
22. My AA family--I see them every day, and love them--sometimes!
23. Least, but not last--NO! that wasn't stated correctly, oh, well! MY SPONSOR!!!
24. My early morning meetings...and mass...and sponsees...computer, Cat-Bert, etc., etc.

See, I kept the number under 25, right? Well, almost.

I'll be back Blogging on Wednesday March 11, 2009.
No computers where I'm going. OK?

In love and service,
Steve E.

Second Thoughts!

THINK IT THROUGH

Earlier this morning I had posted a "Blong". I was very tired while typing it out, and reading it this morning, it just didn't make much sense. So it is now in cyber-heaven, or maybe cyber-hell -grin.

Short gratitude List:

• That I have enough sobriety to know when to delete (well, sometimes!)
• For the cold air this morning
• Reminds me of how wonderful is the warm
• For a motorized scooter
• To ride to two early meetings
• GOOOD meetings
• That I've been sober long enough to know the difference
• For my wife, family, and friends
• For bloggers, OH! how grateful!
• For the new guy I may meet this morning
• That I now believe in a God Who is directing me
• That--so far today--I have 'listened' to God
• That you do not care if this list is short or "Blong"
• Music, all kinds
• My gigs, and my French violin (c.1856)
• That somehow time stopped enough so I could jot down this list
• Maybe my guardian angel Flex had something to do with that -grin
• to be born in United States at this time--or any time
• That I still have a winter coat
• Which I'm gonna wear now, as I bike outta here!

Peace and L.O.V.E., from
Steve E.

God, I thank You for so many things:

• The Air I breathe
• Being old, yet feeling young (mostly!)
• Being allowed to ACT young
• Being allowed to make mistakes
• Having a program to correct mistakes
• My music
• My fine violin
• My fine wife
• My fine bike
• Signed contract to play opera, La Boheme
• I get to Play masses every Saturday and Sunday mornings
• Two wedding jobs next week
• I can choose what to say or do (mostly!)
• My 12-yr-old cat Burt
• Letting me rescue Burt when he was 3 inches long
• It was cold. He was soaking
• It was raining
• he was under a wood pile
• Letting me sleep
• Even when Burt does not sleep
• Memories of St Xavier High School
• Master's Degree in Music Ed
• Never had to use that degree (Teach!)
• My friends in and out of AA
• Most IN AA!
• Our Beautiful AA Literature
• Our beautiful AA Program for Living
• AA meetings all the time
• Sunshine all the time
• Wife in Alanon
• Wife in AA (same wife!)
• Wife in bed asleep (Yesss, same wife!!!)
• Christmas tree still here in my Great Room
• Solid Gold Cross--Christmas present from wife
• Alcoholics Anonymous
• 34 years sober
• Wonderful Blogger Family
• Nobody hates me
• I THINK NOT, anyway?
• I don't hate anybody
• My children love me--a lot!
• The sacraments of my religion
• The Eucharist
• That I no longer fear death
• That I no longer fear LIFE
• That I love God
• That God loves ME
• That God loves EVERYONE!

That this blog is finished--for tonight...

Peace, and Love, Bloggers!
Sincerely,
Steve E.