At Oran, as elsewhere, for lack of time and thinking, people have to love one another without knowing much about it. -- Albert Camus
What is time for? How often we say, "I don't have the time for ______" (meaning our marriages, our friends, our children, our hobbies, our parents, ourselves). Just what is important anyway?
Some people seem to do everything in the margins of their lives, without thinking or knowing much about it. They go to school, get married, have children, get divorced, experience losses, get jobs, all rather offhandedly. Their attention always seems to be somewhere else.
All of us are preoccupied sometimes. And sometimes, in the middle of our lives, the preoccupation clears. "I woke up this morning and took a long look at my life. What have I gotten myself into!" Suddenly, somehow, our full attention is turned on the matter at hand. Suddenly, we have time to think. What's revealed then is the pattern of our lives. Did we make choices at random, irresponsibly? Now that we can see, are there parts we can do over?
I'll endeavor to write my life story in the center of the page, not in the margins.
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Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind. ~Dr. Seuss
Something that I feel I have gained from AA is the ability to stop on occasion and focus on "now". It is actually one of the tools we are taught by this program to help us stay sober.
This morning I am going to sit quietly with my wife and enjoy the smell of our coffee percolating, and savor the flavor of the coffee mocha together.
