I enjoy all elections, but I’m particularly enjoying this one ! Yesterday was my state’s (Virginia’s) primary, and I was on the road all day–driving almost 300 miles, visiting out-of-the-way polling places, phoning in hourly reports to my station. I don’t think I’ve ever seen people waiting in line as cheerfully as the voters I talked to within the collection of elementary schools, Ruritan Halls, and Rescue Squads I visited. We were all so engaged with our country’s political process–as though, somehow, we were at the beginning a grand housekeeping of our country’s ethos. I felt like high-fiving the world!

Come to think of it, a sober life, for me, is full of fully-engaged days like yesterday. A lot that I do really interests me–days are no longer just a string of tasks I do because I have to or I think I should. Looking back, I can see that, when I was drinking and using, a good day was the one I’d gotten through, not the one ahead of me.

It’s difficult for me to express how grateful I feel to be going through life the way I am now–as opposed to the way I was slogging through it a couple of decades ago. I know, down in my gut, that my engaged life is a small miracle that has been granted to me–that is granted to every alcoholic and/or addict who lives  another day without using, without doing anyone harm, maybe getting a little something accomplished–and, hopefully,  enjoying  the heck out of being alive and sober.