it's raining here in the UK, a storm blown in from the continent with lots of rain. Its been an odd year so far and I seem to be taking each up and down pretty well, which is good considering my ability to escalate anything beyond it's natural magnitude.
I lost my job of course in march, this was inevitable due to government cuts and not too painful as I have a pension I can fall back on, having retired once before. I then plucked up courage to try for a position as a mountain guide and pending the results from my assessment last week I will start that soon. This is a dream come true for me and one which I never ever thought would transpire, and the asking for it came about from the serenity prayer "Courage to change the things I can", which is a true statement if ever there was one.
The physio for my shoulder following the operation seems to be reaching its zenith in terms of impact and hopefully that will end soon. All in all the shoulder is a lot better now and at least I can move and sleep.
I have started a new web business also, which is in it's early days, but I am hopeful of it flourishing. The website provides a portal for people wanting to work as an interim "whatever" and where prospective employers can view candidates. I have high hopes for it and the apartment in Rome it will fund the purchase of.
Some bad news is we lost Tilley our dog last week. Tilley is the one in the picture. She hadn't had a good start to life, then we found her and she fell in love with My Beautiful and never let her out of her sight. She hated all other dogs but was great with people and she was so pretty. About 3 weeks ago we noticed she was losing weight and off her food and sure enough cancer had ravaged her body. She gave loads to us and taught me a lot about living in the moment, especially around food. I miss her terribly as does My Beautiful.
I was at Intergroup today and learned of the death of a fellow member from drugs and drink. He joined before I did, was very dogmatic in how to apply the programme, became a founder member of the god squad, and went round telling everyone they needed god, that is until the church he attended told him as a born again christian he could no longer be a drunk. To which he responded by going out and getting drunk for the next few years. He slipped around for more years than I can care to remember, working all the time and trying to stay sober, which at time he managed for some lengths. But there was always the inevitable. He was a nice man, who tried hard to make it happen and the world is worse for his loss.
It made me think about why people don't make it. There was something in this young man that strived a little too much to ensure that people believed his message, I guess more for him than them. A little like whistling in the dark or "act as if". It seemed more important than actually staying sober. Certainly church attendance, belief in god, god himself, long association with the fellowship didn't seem to help any. There was sporadic and incandescent attendance at meetings and I guess there is a clue, attendance at meetings and attitude, and acceptance. At the end of the day this really is a simple thing to achieve, just decide not to pick up a drink one day at a a time, and then keep doing that. Determination and persistence seem to help along with constant identification with others in meetings. It is so simple. So simple thousands seem unable to grasp it and there is the conundrum of the disease.
Take care all of you and have a good week.