16

steady snow, mild, temps minus 2

Just fed the birds...the feeders are thick with blue jays, wood peckers, doves and blackcapped chickadees. Lost Trudy's ball in the snow, but after much mutual digging, and against all odds, we found it. In spring, when the feet of snow melt, we find all sorts of things in the snow. Some more pleasant than others.

blizzard warning out for tonight and tomorrow. What fun.

Nancy came and got both Michael and me all hooked up to Skype on our laptops. Now when I do book clubs the option is there to do it via skype. What a great piece of technology.

Am going out tonight, as we do every Saturday night when we're home, to the Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in Sutton. Today I'm celebrating 16 years without a drink. Sober. Free. I realized this morning that I have now been sober longer than I drank. It feels significant.

But mostly it feels gentle. Feels right. Feels like me. Life, while full and often hectic, is really very simple now. No need to lie. Or hide. I have a private life, but not a secret one.

And my needs are simple...I need my beliefs and my sobriety. Everything else stems from there. If those are gone I have nothing. No love, no friends, no creations. Just loneliness.

How lucky I am. Lucky to have been a drunk, and even luckier to be in recovery.

I don't talk of this often. Once a year on the blog I mention it, out of gratitude. But my sobriety, and what I have learned in the 12 step programme, informs everything I say and do and think.

Be well, my friends. Thanks for the company.