June 27

HUMILITY MONTH: DAY 27: “humility is beyond our reach. if it were a product of reaching, we would instinctively be proud of reaching it. it is a gift.” ― John Piper

And what a gift it is…all of it! Life is a gift, breathing is a great gift, arms and legs and hearts and lungs…all gifts! Recovery is the greatest gift, but only because the rest of that stuff gives me the opportunity to live and love it! I can walk and talk and read and write and spell and think and learn and forget and love and live…these are gifts. This is kind of how my gratitude letters to my Creator go in the mornings. I get going on these amazing gifts I am given and cannot stop…so many! And gratitude reminds me that I don’t do this stuff by myself…and that keeps me humble and open to the magnificence of all the gifts…breathing and moving…there are so many people who would give a year or more of their lives to move and dance and walk and run like I can. And seeing, isn’t that the greatest thing ever???? Then I can drive and appreciate the ocean and see on my computer and be aware of the presence of things that would be hard to detect without sight???? I am astonished every time I open my eyes and they work! A couple of months ago I had an injury to my cornea and was told I could lose the sight in my right eye…and I was sad and remembered to just keep being grateful for healing and the use of my left eye…it was crossed when I was born, so it is a miracle that it works so well now. See, I get this from all the gratitude letters I write…probably about 10,000 of them. I have done them since the early days, so if I figure out 33 months of recovery times approximately 27 days in each month (since I was not so consistent for those first 3-4 years), it is roughly 10,000 times I have been mindful and grateful for these things. They are things over which I cannot exercise my control or will to create. And this morning, my little feral mommy cat brought these little fluff balls to eat from the communal cat bowls on the porch. I would rather she not have any more babies, but have not been able to capture her, so I have to get the kittens and fix them and keep feeding the mommy, even though she is doomed to have babies every 6 months. She is a great mommy and brings all the babies to me. I get them all fixed and have a herd of feral cats now. A couple are tame enough to beg for brushing or petting, but the rest are very wild. I am SO grateful for the resources to be able to feed these babies and for the help to get them fixed and keep them all from breeding. And I am grateful for the computer I sit down to each and every day to write about the things I love best in this world, recovery and spiritual principles! I am grateful that I can type 100 wpm and it only takes me a few minutes to do this…I am grateful for the people with whom I have shared this for the last 3-1/2 years. And I am grateful for the inspiration and love of that Power that I have that gives me the incredible energy to do all that I do…These things flow from my fingers and I am but a channel most of the time. So I know that there is no way I can take any credit for any of this…it is ALL a gift…it is all grace, and I am sitting in the middle of it with awe and wonder and joy!