Things are good. Saying that sounds so ho-hum but looking back at my journey in CoDA the last two and a half years I know how much it has taken to reach “things are good”. “Things are good” doesn’t mean there aren’t challenges and problems to be solved but their weight is so much lighter these days. I’m resilient in a way I’ve never experienced. Other people’s problems are theirs and I am detached in a way that still leaves room for love and warmth.

I walk around my urban community and take drives in the country. The autumn leaves emanate a glowing energy like a wild festival of color and dance to celebrate their summer growth and hard work before a winter of rest and recovery. It mirrors my cyclical journey through the Twelve Steps season after season because there is always more to learn, and the flora and fauna come back each spring in a slightly different way bringing more understanding of how to live here in myself. I’m using the tools of recovery, like raking the leaves, planting fall bulbs, mulching the beds without yet conceiving what I’ll plant in the spring.

Things are good because I have accumulated tools, because I live in the cycle of recovery, and I dance in the fallen leaves like today is all that matters.

Patsy C. 10/27/2024