Go Cardinals!

Willie's Words of Wisdom...

"It's been rough and rocky travelin',
but my feet are firmly planted on the ground,
And after taking several readings,
I'm surprised to find my mind still fairly sound....."

The words of Willie Nelson ring true with me today, although I have to say that my mind is only fairly sound, and even that comes with a lot of work on a day to day basis. One of the abiding gifts AA has given me is the concept of "an attitude of gratitude". I heard that from an old timer when I first came into that program. He told me, and others, "it's impossible to be angry, resentful and full of self-pity if you are truly grateful for God's gifts to you each day".

God's gifts, no matter how small, like seeing my Dad be able to get out of bed today and walk, on his own, into the kitchen to eat our traditional Thursday Johnny's Barbeque lunch. For the last year he and I have made the trip down to the restaurant one of his regular outings, but for the time being, that's not possible, so the lunch comes to him. Small things become big things at this stage of life, for him and for me.

And whenever I think of St. Willie these days I cannot help but remember another of his philosophical classics...

"Well it's a bloody mary morning,
baby left me without warning sometime in the night,
so I'm flying down to Houston,
with forgetting her the nature of my flight"

But that is stinkin' thinkin' and an old tape playing in my head, not applicable today.