My Daily Moral Inventory

Meeting with my sponsor tomorrow night at CC's Coffee, so I suppose tonight I'll just kick back, write a bit, watch some TV, and munch on my trail mix.

Been working on taking my daily moral inventory. Usually at night... right before going to sleep, I lay there and mentally go over the events of the day. What did I do right? What did I do wrong?What should I do about it? I pray on it.

Stressful situations are much easier to deal with when I step back, take a good look, and not immediately react. I'm working on promptly admitting when I'm wrong, as well. Was never good at that. It makes the day so much better (and easier), though, when Step 10 becomes part of your daily routine. It's one of the steps that is never really finished.

Had a good day at work. Just very busy. There are still a lot of Mardi Gras visitors in town. Houses still have their decorations up. Beads are still everywhere. Hanging from trees, power lines, fences... It almost feels like another parade could come rolling down St. Charles at any moment. I like that.

I'll leave you tonight with a picture of the most festive pothole in the world. Saw it the other morning on the way to work.

God Bless!

Now that's what a pothole

should look like!

What's Different?

Our moderator at the "After Work" group started us on the topic of steps 4 and 5. I finished these steps not too long ago, so they were still pretty fresh on my mind. 6 and 7 also fall into alignment with these. Finished those very recently so I was eager to share. Unfortunately my cough precluded me from doing much talking at either meeting today. All I could really do effectively was sit there, listen, and chew on cough drops....

The themes from everyone's moral inventories were pretty similar. Learning to lie and manipulate from very early on all the way up to the time we enter an earnest recovery. None of our stories are very unique. Our self-centeredness and ego plague us and our loved ones until we say, "Enough." Until we start working those steps. Until we turn it over to God. Ego quickly turns to humility, much to the amazement of the alcoholic and those around them.

A guy shared, tonight, that one of his relatives asked him what was different this time. Being used to the question he started to answer, but they cut him off. "Something really is different. what is it?" He told them that he was honestly working his steps and doing the program as suggested in the Big Book. Same story for me... People notice a definite difference. And the same as him, I'm actually working the program. Not just going and sitting and waiting for an hour to be up. That never kept me sober... And it sure as hell wasn't recovery.

Other news... Hmm. I pick up another chip Sunday, my sponsor is making gumbo for some of us Monday, will hopefully have a new place by Wed. (Luckily there's no lease involved where I'm looking, a guy at the group has a 3 bedroom house uptown and asked if I wanted to be a roomie. I won't be there long-term, but it's a big step up.), decided to use my income tax this year to look at making a down payment on a car. Some of this is future stuff and subject to change, of course. That's the plan, though.

Sat at Audubon Park before my meeting today. Here's a picture of a turkey duck. Goodnight!