Love in Abundance

The New Year has arrived and it is hard to believe 9 years has passed since the turn of the new century and the whole “Y2K” alleged hysteria. I think our New Year’s Eve as the century turned consisted of watching the “crazies” on television when we lived in Las Vegas. Of course our daughter at that time was 22 months old and we were not about to venture out that particular evening. Not a great deal has changed in that department as our New Year’s eve was indeed a home “family affair” but as the years progress and I progress in recovery there is so much more meaning to life than previous. Here it is the second day of the New Year and because of how the holiday fell this year I didn’t have much on my work agenda.

I made my way to the gym to pick up where I left off on my training regimen running 10 miles this morning. The 10 miles felt like a “walk in the park” as the miles continue to pile on. I had a very good run and a very good workout for that matter. My legs are to a point where they are more tired than anything and I think this is the purpose of this training regimen. I haven’t felt this tired in my legs in any of the previous training sessions for the past two marathons which could be good or could be bad; I’m not sure. My calves have gone through the sore stage and the soreness has dissipated considerably. The only malady I am feeling is the tiredness in the upper portions of my legs. Hopefully as the next two weeks will be taper weeks this feeling of tiredness will subside.

I had only one item on my agenda and apparently that person was also taking it easy this week so nothing got accomplished. My wife and I did start on taking down the Christmas decorations. Didn’t we just put these up??? Yes, time does fly and it was time to take the decorations down. We started on the outside of the house and it is amazing how quickly these come down as opposed to when I put them up. I did have to get out the ladder but if we are still in this same house next year all the hanging mechanisms are in place so the setup will be much faster than this year. What took two days to setup was taken down in a matter of an hour.

With the outside of the house complete my wife turned her attention to the inside of the house. I had prior plans of going to a birthday celebration within the Gamblers Anonymous Program. This program is incredible because I found myself with a very good friend in the program making an hour drive to this wonderful celebration. An incredible member within the program was celebrating their fourth year associated with GA. I had first met this member three years ago at their first year celebration and we have been fast friends ever since. This great member even spoke at our speaker’s meeting a few months ago and did a fantastic job.

We are very fortunate in our GA group to have a great website and on this website is all the information for our group. About a month ago I noticed that this birthday celebration would commence this evening and I wanted to make sure I would be in attendance. Of course my good friend in the program makes it a point to get to these types of celebrations and I was very fortunate to hitch a ride. We made the hour drive and that time passed as quickly as we talked about recovery. This good friend will be celebrating their 7th year in the program and is great member of GA. Our conversations flowed so easily and before I know it we had arrived.

It was a fantastic meeting and there were over 50 people in attendance. My friend in the program was sharing the celebration with another member who was also celebrating four years and I was so blessed to witness these two incredible members celebrate their birthdays. There were also two brand new members in attendance I hope those two people realized how special life becomes when embracing recovery. There was so much love in that room I had tears in my eyes. Compulsive gambling can destroy a person along with family and friends. However; in recovery especially the Gamblers Anonymous Program puts all the pieces back together and then some!! There was a great deal of this and then some in the room tonight. I did consider myself blessed to witness this love fest. I am so happy I attended the meeting and I know my life continues to be enriched every single day do to the Gamblers Anonymous Program and the incredible fellowship.