Happy Solstice Everyone!
Jun 21, 08- (by Diary of a Quitter)
- 4 responses
- Sobriety Salon
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I love this beautiful city that I’ve adopted as my home. Sure, it rains or is cloudy eight or nine months of the year, but when summer comes to town ~ the whole city celebrates.
Today, J and I took our 5-year-old daughter, Little C, to the Solstice Parade and Festival at one of the coolest parks in Seattle. The park itself is a reclaimed oil refinery that sits on the lake shore, and the parade is a spectacle of beautiful hippie-pagan-freakshow rejoicing that is truly fit to celebrate the sun’s birthday.
Little C was dressed up like a fairie, and she was in rare form today. She made friends with every single person she crossed paths with, she danced, she hula-hooped, she ate snow-cones and she traded costuming notes with every drag queen in sight.
Her smile and her joy were positively contagious, and throughout the whole day I was feeling this deep current of love and gratitude. I am blessed with a wonderful partner who loves me just as I am and a daughter who lights the world around her with her beautiful soul.
One of the best things about the day was knowing that the joy I was feeling wasn’t manufactured by some drug. We were walking through the park, J and C were ahead of me on the path holding hands, and watching them I had this moment when I realized how close I came to losing this: this ability to be present, to feel alive, to feel connected, to feel joy. Addiction stole those things from me - recovery has made them possible again.
I am not perfect - but I had a damn near perfect day today. I am alive, I can feel joy, my life is rich with people whom I love and who love me, and it feels soooo good to be enjoying the fruits of all the hard work I’ve been doing these past eight months. I can sit on a blanket in the park, or walk through the city gathering wildflowers, or sit in my living-room typing and know: I am ok, and everything is going to be fine.
This summer is going to be great, I predict. I fully intend to explore my hometown as if I were a tourist, and do all the things that I haven’t yet done because I was too busy getting high. Yes, this year, I’m going to do things right. I’ll keep you posted!
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[...] J, Little C and I had a wonderful time at the Solstice Parade today. You can read all about it at The Second Road - there’s even a picture to make you super [...]
Welcome to TSR! That is a great park-someone took me there my first visit. It is great to have a new respect for our time on Earth. Thanks for your insight.
WOW fantastic
you people deserve the festivities, I live in India, the southwest region in Asia (where India is) is the only region in the world which has separate rainy season altogether called monsoon, this typically lasts for around 5-6 months, we celebrate when it starts because of the reprieve from the heat and celebrate when its over because we are sick of rain by then.. :o)
Hi Raj! I’ve often thought that we should have a special name for the rainy season around here - but we just call it Winter. And strangely enough, by the end of the Summer, we’re almost glad to welcome back the rain. Almost.
alix - So cool that you got to visit Gas Works, it’s one of my favorite parks. And thanks for the welcome!