I’ve spent this morning in a frenzy of multi-tasking as it was both my first day back at work after winter holidays and my last day at work before I fly to California for a family wedding. So, I found myself doing such things as simultaneously reserving a seat on the Super Shuttle and posting an essay to my station’s automation system.

I was off for ten whole days and it was wonderful. I wrote, yakked with my family, played with my cats, worked out at a leisurely pace, watched a lot of football (go Redskins!), read books for pleasure, and–most wonderful of all–occasionally did nothing. Life was soooooooo peaceful and laid-back.

That ended, of course, at nine this morning. And even though the trip to California is technically a vacation, the pace of the next few days will be anything but laid-back. But you know what I realize and wanted to share? Thanks to sobriety and years of working the Twelve Steps, I may lose the laid-back reality, but I won’t lose the laid-back feeling that comes with it–or at least I won’t lose it all of the time. Add if I do lose it in the pressure of deadlines, I’ll know how to get it back

To me, one of the greatest gifts of sobriety is being able to deal with the frenzy of life without having it morph into the frenzy of soul.

Happy, peaceful, New Year, my friends.