My solution is gratitude

I'm chairing a meeting today and the topic is chairperson's choice so I needed to come up with something appropriate for anything we might be going through now. With the new restrictions, a lot of us have had to cancel holiday plans and that disappoints and frustrates us.

My thing was not being able to attend the christmas social at the club. I've been to every one since 1997. What's my solution whenever I start to be consumed by self-pity - gratitude. If I can remember all the things I have to be grateful for, it's hard to feel any negativity while I'm doing that.

So, grab a pen and paper, or a keyboard, and write down six things you have to be grateful for. If you are not out of your funk yet, write six more and keep writing until you realize how selfish you've been feeling.

End of the Year always gets me thinking

Tomorrow, I'll be chairing my, well I was going to say my home group of al-anon, but it's actually not my group. I haven't been to my group since the first lockdown, but I've been attending another group on zoom for about 18 months. Being the chairperson doesn't worry me. Done it before and it really doesn't call for a special skill set. It's just another way to express my gratitude.

A quarter of a century ago, I was broken. These meetings I go to help me to put me back together, a piece at a time. I heard an AA oldtimer tell a story once about putting the man back together and as he did that his world came together. Same sort of thing happened with me. It's not the same world I lived in. I think it's a better one.

The end of the year always gets me thinking. Did I do enough this year? Did I change enough? I spoke at a meeting today and I quoted the book, that line about being of maximum usefullness to God and to others? Nancy and I have the community project we do every year. We delivered xmas gifts to 19 organizations in metro, but surely we could have done 20. Next year, we'll try harder.