Life Has Been Good To Me
Despite tricky terrain along the way, somewhere along the line I got lucky
A Beautiful Day
Yesterday was unseasonably warm, as the mercury climbed to the upper 50’s, three days after Christmas, here in Virginia. I’d been up and out earlier, enjoying the hot jacuzzi out back when it was still cold out, then swam 1000 yards in our new swim-spa. That’s been getting me back into a good fitness routine. It’s become more important than ever for me to keep myself fit. I’m aiming to live into triple digits (age 100), but I want to ensure that I am in peak physical, mental and spiritual health all the way. Swimming is key to that goal.
After I’d come back in and began some chores I’d planned for the day, Kathy wanted to check out the swim-spa, so I gladly put the chores down and went back out to help her in her first attempt to negotiate the new pool. This one requires climbing down into it from our back deck, where our old one was more a matter of stepping over the side, which was partially submerged in the ground. This one’s much trickier to navigate.
Deciding it would be easier to help her from inside the pool, I threw my bathing suit back on and joined her at the spa. By then, it had warmed up to feel like a balmy spring day out. Just a beautiful day, all the way around. Walking around outside in my bathing suit did not require bundling up in a robe — it really felt that warm.
Dream Work
From the vantage point of being inside the swim-spa, looking around, just enjoying the moment, we realized that we live a life we once could only dream about. Kathy recalled times when she dreamed of just going away for a weekend to a place in a nice setting, that had a pool and a jacuzzi, where we could just relax, read, swim, and hang out for a weekend.
That now describes where we live. She did a good job with that dream work. She actually is quite adept at envisioning things, and then bringing them into her life. I’m the lucky guy who gets to be at her side when she does this.
Left to my own devices, I would probably live a very simple, somewhat austere life, and be perfectly content with that. But, I enjoy this life so much more than I probably would that. It makes me glad that something overrode my plan, back when we’d first met, to avoid her at all costs, and asked her out, instead. She’s colored my world to such extremes that I never even would have dreamed of. I enjoy living my life in color!
By the time we were done, in my second round outside, I came back inside to read some, before getting back to my chores, and promptly fell asleep for an hour-long nap. When I woke up, I cooked up some dinner, then went out to a meeting, one that is actually called “Beachcombers”. I debated about going in my bathing suit — it was still that warm out — but did shower up and change, instead.
Celebrating
We had a little trouble finding the venue where the meeting was at — my vehicle’s GPS gets possessed sometimes, and it was last night — and wound up parking blocks away from where the meeting actually was. We had several blocks to walk to it — but, it was one of those perfect nights to be out walking, so it was cool.
The meeting was celebrating the 36th anniversary clean for a guy I just met last week for the first time. As we chatted before that meeting, we came to realize we had both worked for the same guy, way back when, a guy in the program who had been largely responsible for NA getting started in this entire region of the country.
While he had been great at getting a fellowship up and running in a region, he was not easy to work for. I’d managed to last 9 months, which was a record for me at the time — that was my 15th job in a 4 year period in which I went through 17 different jobs, and was the longest of that stretch, until jobs 16 and 17 (I’m still in the 17th, 35 years later). At one point, I had just blown off work for a whole week, forcing him to fire me. That was my way of blowing up a living and work situation that I could no longer stand. That’s what I used to do, back then.
A Small World
The guy celebrating had managed to work for Larry for something like 4 years — my hat was off to him for that accomplishment! As it turned out, he first got clean the same week that I got fired. It wouldn’t be for another 4 years or so until he went to work for Larry. Small world!
Back then, I had been living in a friend’s basement, struggling mightily to dig myself out of debt, unable to drive because I’d accumulated a stack of traffic tickets I couldn’t pay and had lost my license, as a result.
Now, I live in a place that would be a great Airbnb weekend get-away spot, and I regularly debate with myself whether I will retire in 2 years, or retire now and get a job closer to home, and look for ways to make a difference in other people’s lives, if I can.
Life Is Good
When I remember to put things into perspective, it really is like I’ve landed at that place on the other side of the rainbow, and my job some days is simply to remember, and appreciate, that, and be willing to share the joy of living with others.
Yup — life is good.
