GIFTS

We arrived to thigh high grass, a neglected garden of blossomed perenniels tumbling over each other to greet us, another garden begging to be tilled, bags to unpack, and a house sorely in need of a good dusting. Our semi-yearly migration leaves us pulled in two directions. We sadly miss the mountains and desert and our western family and many dear AA friends yet we anticipate a joyous reunion with our northern family and friends, and happily return to our roots where we first got sober and started on our journey of new beginnings. Initially we are overwhelmed by the green. Trees, grass...even the rain seems green. We feel disorientated in a house we have lived in for over twenty years. There is so much work to be done and so many loving demands on our time. Within two weeks, in different states, a wedding, an interrment, a granddaughter's dance recital, another's graduation, and a grandson being honored as an Eagle Scout. "Well," some might say, "That's just life. Enjoy." But we are alcoholics, out of our routines, and down on our regular AA meetings. Our first inclination is to panic and try to do ten things at once. Habit saves us, though. Go to an AA meeting, prioritize, take one day at a time, breathe.

Two weeks later we are home again, the loved ones are honored, the grass is cut (a baler would have been a help), and the garden is planted. This morning we woke to this little fellow deposited under our window and our rent-a-rooster crowing in the chicken coop. Everything is right with our world thanks to the sanity AA gives us.