Friday, October 28, 2011

Steering a course

The acorns are falling from the trees, making pinging sounds as they hit the roof and the deck.  A recovery friend is trying to grow oaks from acorns. He plants them in containers, waters, and checks to see if the acorns have produced a seedling.  His goal is to plant oak trees around his house.  His goal is laudable and his enthusiasm brings a smile.  He has not been successful at much in this life, so I hope that an oak will peek through the soil eventually.

Another recovery friend is once again seeking shelter after having rented a room with a woman who had a couple of months of sobriety.  She has relapsed badly, been arrested several times, and the rent money that he paid was used on booze.  The water and electricity were cut off, so he is in limbo.  He has a talent for writing and photography but can't seem to find a roommate who isn't taken drunk ever so often.

Yet another recovery friend is depressed and brings his fear into a meeting.  People talk about solutions such as religion and therapy.  I inwardly cringe because these are outside the purview of Al-Anon.  My sharing is about service work helping me to get outside of my own sick thinking.  Being alone with the killer who wants me to be filled with fear and self-loathing isn't a good idea.  So he went to lunch after the meeting yesterday which is a start.

I am getting towards the end of a course on advanced piloting.  The exam is coming up soon.  Calculating set and drift is interesting.  I can determine the course a boat needs to take to get to a given location at a given time based on the current and wind.  I wish that we could navigate as well as humans.  So many of us don't correct our course until we are well up on the rocks.

Hoping to make this day one in which I steer a good course.

This is the true joy in life: the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no 'brief candle' to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations. ~ George Bernard Shaw

20 comments:

  1. Another wonderful quote, another amazing picture.

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  2. Congrats on completion of the advanced piloting course. You friend can keep growing oaks, as long as he keeps them far from my house. :)
    Recovery is a precious thing, but sometimes hard to hold on to. thanks Syd.

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  3. I can imagine you would be a very good pilot and sailor Syd.

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  4. the squirrels around here bury acorns in the yard and every summer I have to pull up volunteer Oak trees all over the place or I'd be living in a Oak grove. I think your friends idea should work just fine.

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  5. Using the sailing techniques to show how to work on our recovery is a great way to describe it. I used to have a sail boat in San Diego. I really relate to your line "I wish that we could navigate as well as humans." Being on the lookout for trouble is for me how I don't end up on the rocks.

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  6. cool on your friend growing oaks...and great job on finishing the class too man...

    hope you have a great weekend!

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  7. Great share.
    We have choices with the help of the program I am able to see some of them.

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  8. My girlfriend said we can't propel ourselves into awareness. I had to hear that. But the program has given me the tools to chart a course. It's very slow sailing for me. :) Congrats on your navigation course. Sounds challenging. Good read today.

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  9. Syd, piloting: what a wonderful metaphor. What is the instrumentation you use? Sailors used to navigate by the stars.

    The Shaw quotation reminds me of Viktor Frankl, who said that success can't be pursued, it must ensue from dedicated service to a worthy cause. x/G

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  10. Your photography is exquisite and always perfectly suited to your reflections. When I scroll through your entries, it is a stroll through a museum-quality collection of art.

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  11. Great quote but the photo is more than words can express. Stunning? Amazing? Gorgeous? Fabulous? They all work for that scene.

    Stay the course - a good one -- and may your friend see an oak tree from the acorns.

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  12. i agree, great share :) thanks for the great share.

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  13. I find it helpful to remember that sometimes it is very necessary for a person to do Program Plus.

    Religion need not be an outside issue, if it is shared without dogma and without specifics.

    And sometimes, it is essential for folks new to program to hear someone say that it is absolutely fine to get that outside help that makes it possible for them to be stable enough.. to continue in program....

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  14. I love your analogy of determining the course based on current and wind ... applied to our lives it makes perfect sense.

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  15. Syd, congratulations on the course. I know it takes much skill, and knowledge to navigate that way. You are a person who never stops learning.

    I once got lost in a swimming pool, so now I stay away from large bodies of water;)

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  16. "I wish that we could navigate as well, as humans.

    We can.

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  17. I think we go to those meetings to testify that lives can be changed by doing simple things, because someone was there testifying when we showed up. Someone will hear, and we often don't know who that is. I guess it's none of our business, is it? Our job is to keep showing up, steer the course, and testify.

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  18. Thank you for being there - sharing recovery and not advice that doesn't belong in a meeting.

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  19. Being of service to others is the greatest "therapy" I can think of. And being ACTIVE - doing something.

    The best I ever saw Nicole was when she and her boyfriend at the time were going to the gym. She really worked it - I don't know why she quit going but I know she didn't drink much (if at all) during that time frame. It kept her busy.

    Gym works better than therapy, IMO.

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  20. I too am a sailor and find many analogies with recovery. This week I shared at a meeting that when I worked on a sailboat for a time in the Caribbean that people would see a storm coming and panic and ask if we were headed in. I would tell them no, that we could sail around the storm. And if we couldn’t we would enjoy the rain and seek sunshine as soon as we possible.

    This week I asked my husband to move out. His disease is escalating and he is unavailable as a father or a husband and it has had a very negative effect on our home environment. I am devastated but also see that I have steered out of the storm. From here, I can see more clearly and hope for better days.
    Thanks again for this blog. It has become an important part of my day.

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