Climb the mountain

Lots of hurting people at the meeting last night.  People who were doing well a couple of weeks ago are now in the valley of sadness, worried about loved ones, worried about the holidays and the cost of getting through without emotional injury.  That valley seems awfully dark when shadowed by the mountain of misery brought by alcoholism and drug addiction.  So we shared about how we can use the steps and other recovery tools to climb up the mountain and get to a place where there is a clearer view of life.  It was uplifting.  

My wife has had fun making things for people.  Her inner artist has been called out to decorate Christmas ornaments that she found at thrift stores.  She uses organic cloth to line a box, puts confetti paper and colorful tissue paper in the box, nestles the painted ornaments in the paper, ties it all with a bow and voila--you get the finished product shown above.  I have hardly seen her because she has been working like one of Santa's elves in our workshop.  

Busy is good.  Busy helps me to move when I might get mired down.  So far so good on lowering expectations this Christmas.  Our decision to keep it simple has made a big difference.  This will be the first Christmas that the parents-in-law won't be coming here on Christmas day.  Things are simply different this year.  We have adjusted to those changes. The caregivers are going out of town for a week between Christmas and New Year's so we are going to be taking turns staying over at the parents during the night.  Temporary help will be taking care of things during the day.  Living life on life's terms--it's what we have to do in order to climb mountains and not be stuck in the valley of darkness.