Lost and Found

Today I am grateful for safe travels, delicious food, good fun, enjoyable weather, time with family. I appreciated the opportunity to sit down as a group of nine that don’t often get to partake of a meal together. Thank you to my husband Darcy and sister-in-law Dana for doing most of the work to prepare the feast and clean up after it.

It was a pleasant Thanksgiving holiday and a nice long weekend. Darcy and I decided to go through some of our storage totes and see what we could toss, share, repack. Each time I do this now, I am more able to let go and throw away or give away items that I may have hung on to for decades.

I can recall when and where I got some of the keepsakes I have gathered, but my memory has faded on the story and meaning behind other mementos. (In recent years, I will attach notes or write down some details to help capture the story.)

I came across these random keys in one little canister. The canister I know I got from my sister as a Christmas gift many years ago. The keys? Not sure. A couple are vehicle keys, one looks like it belongs to quite an old lock, and the other two could be from a file cabinet. They weren’t needed for their original purposes anymore.

And yet, they emerged with a new purpose. They reminded me that willingness is key. Willingness is key to my daily recovery from alcoholism and my goals of peace of heart and clarity of thought. Willingness to let go of what I can’t control or change, and spend my energy on what I can impact—primarily my own thoughts, actions, and attitudes.

Living gratefully and willingness go together well. I am more willing to lean into the good energy created by pausing, breathing, giving thanks for being right here, right now. My drinking could have killed me in my teens and early twenties. Here I am. Grateful to be here. Willing to do daily work for a daily disease that would rather pull me back into the muck and mire of self-pity.

These keys lost one meaning and found another. Life is like that.