Things I Overheard This Year

As we were riding down the road, having just picked up an older friend. He said, "Lots of bear sightings recently. I can't shoot them, but I am carrying a side arm. I have saved my pheasants once and chickens another time." There I am sitting in the back seat bear clan.

"I think we are skipping spring and we will go right to summer! I don't much like spring anyway." This was not my conversation, I just overheard this. I love spring and don't want to skip right over it man.

"What you resist persists!" Wait, can you say that again. Does that have to do with my constant focus on cancer? My not setting it down for even a day? If I stop resisting, it will stop persisting?

"Eat an elephant one bite at a time!" I'm familiar with this one. Live one day at a time. Stay in the moment. You can only have a conscious contact with God living in the present moment, I keep insisting.

Or is it taking one step at a time when it comes to decluttering? Like pick a spot and work on it for 10 minutes. Set an alarm. Do 10 minutes at a time until that spot is finished.

Or how about taking 10 minutes to look at photos of my brother to grieve. Then get on with my day. I can be sad or cry for 10-20 minutes a day. I can write a letter that takes me a short time. This will help me to heal. I can work on writing poetry or art until the pain is diminished.

Then there is hearing about all the problems with the school my grandchildren have been attending? It is to the point that two of them are being homeschooled now. Since the pandemic we have helped with two grandchildren. We may have a few more coming soon.

I listened to a brother say, "I am going to drink less often and when I do drink, quit earlier." He had told me prior that he was going to quit drinking and stop that lifestyle. I learned 44 years ago, that I can't save my family members. Just like I won't be flying to the moon. 

 I can love them and pray for them and that is what I do. Being in the addiction field for a long time I sometimes think I should do more. That is when I need to talk to a sponsor. My sponsor died this year and I still grieve, and yet, I have gotten another one.  

Sometimes I can talk to my daughter and say out loud what I am thinking, and she will say, "Mom, he is an adult. He can figure that out on his own. There is nothing you can or should do about this son."

My daughter is so much healthier than I am, even though I have been in recovery my whole life, or since I was twenty-four. She started earlier than I did and we broke the alcoholic family rules but she doesn't go to recovery groups anymore. She graduated. I will never be done.

I heard the hubby talking to the guy that fixed his car at the auto body shop. He was looking at the Ford emblem on the car we drove over and said, "I hope you make it home." Then he laughed and said, "Two guys I know, that worked for Ford retired and both bought Chevy's, Pop!"

"Fords have so much plastic under that when you pull the bumper off of a ford plastic falls all over the place!" And finally, he said, "Can't get me to buy a Ford after working in the body shop!"

I thought oh no, more ammunition for hubby to use with the daughter and son-in-law who drive Fords. Okay, so this one may not bring tears, but the others probably have and the tears may not stop.