I’ve been visiting with my sister. We’ve been talking about middle age and the health issues that accompany it. We both agree that we like younger friends because the women our age are usually focused on how lousy they feel or how badly life has treated them. My sister and I try to keep it positive and moving forward even though like most middle aged women we have a few issues that have popped up. I started pondering this and the truth is that I had more health issues in my 20s than I do now. The difference is that I’ve been conditioned into thinking that now that I’m in my 50s, it’s age related.
There is another disease that I am in recovery from, alcoholism. I started thinking that most diseases have been linked to stress. Stress is nothing more that how we perceive the events that surround us. In recovery I learned to turn my life over to a higher power, accept life on life’s terms, take an inventory of my character defects, make amends and carry the message to other alcoholics. Most importantly, I learned gratitude. It was in my moments of gratitude that I was set free from my anxiety and the obsession to drink.
I learned how to be grateful for the love that surrounded me, the possessions that gave me comfort and for my abilities. The most difficult lesson of gratitude was the gratitude for my alcoholism. I heard people say that they were a grateful alcoholic, but I thought they were either lying or drunk. I couldn’t even imagine being grateful for something that made me such a hideously ugly person and that caused me to be bankrupt of spirit and landed me in a place of total “incomprehensible demoralization.”
I can remember the events of my life now and say I am grateful to be an alcoholic. Because of my disease, I have learned skills to cope with life that few normal people possess. I have been able to tap into the stronger parts of my person and use them to benefit myself and my family. I am more humble and accepting of others weaknesses. I possessed and learned the ability to suit up and show up for my family, my education, my job and myself. My view of my higher power has expanded where it used to be narrow and limited. I learned that god will do for me what I cannot do for myself and to trust the process of whatever I was trying to accomplish in my life. I have been able to help others in a way that none other than an alcoholic could touch.
I am wondering if we practiced these principals in all of our affairs, if we could recover from other infirmaries. What would happen if I applied my recovery and were grateful for my hypothyroidism, my other addictive tendencies or my chronicle fatigue?  I think it’s worth exploring,
Just for today, I’ll dig out my gratitude journal and start counting the ways my infirmaries bless me.