Sunday, February 16, 2014

Investment

I do not believe in coincidences, this is a lesson I learned a few years ago through my sponsor. I believe that everything in our lives happen exactly as they should. I believe that people come in and out of our lives at the exact right moment. I believe that relationships begin and end to give us the ability to grow and learn something.

Everything around has has a meaning or a lesson that we can learn to better ourselves or prevent pain again. Whether or not we choose to see the lesson and learn from it is up to us. Some lessons are harder to learn than others, that is just life. I think in the back of our mind and in our hearts we know that a certain decision is either a good one or bad one from the beginning. What makes us decide on those decisions that will either hurt or help us? I like to tell myself that things are going to work out better than I expect, I am usually wrong, it has to do with putting expectations on people or situations.

There is a fine line in over involvement and not enough in a relationship. This summer I lost myself in one, and not in a good way. I learned a few very valuable lessons from it; do not settle for what you aren't 100% on, you have to keep yourself healthy and grounded in every way you can, and if you are not happy about something you need to speak on it quickly. If you chooooooose to hold it inside, you are going to build a resentment which are never a good thing. 

I do not think that you can over-invest in yourself. Through prayer, meditation, gym, fellowship, music, and this blog I am able to keep myself healthy. I have rough patches just like everyone else, but its those times that I need to reevaluate my situation and move forward. These are just things that help keep me sane. I do not think investment in self is or ever will be a bad one!

Thank you all for your support,

Z

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Control

What a weekend..... obviously the home town team won the big game, that was great. Had an amazing Friday night,  I read my 6th step to my sponsor on Saturday, then got to hang out with a co-worker that I very much look up to for a multitude of reasons. Today I had the honor of chairing my first ASC (Area Service Committee) for Central Washington.

Started my weekend off right and am ending it right for sure! Many things are coming to mind as I am reflecting over the past few days. I will try my best to put them into a readable thought process. Going to my sponsors house is a very spiritual and centering experience for me. He lives on a ranch on the top of Saddle Mountain. 46,000 acres of cows, dirt, hills, and sage......for you that know me, you are probably thinking to yourself "what the hell is that city boy doing?" you would be correct to assume I am out of my element up there.

Being up there puts some things in prospective for me. I get so wrapped up in the hustle of my daily grind, I tend to get too plugged in. I am able to be free and unplug up there, to truly admire some of the earths beauty and not worry about anything than living in the moment. I took my steps and my camera up there and had an amazing experience. (I will post some pics in a bit) When I read my steps to Ron (sponsor) he makes notes so we can discuss things at the end or as they come up. Naturally I take what he says to me about my recovery and growth very seriously. The 6th step deals with character defects and it was a step I started writing this August after a relationship where I lost myself ended. You see, as she was pulling away I was trying to fill that void with my character defects. Big void right :) the one that kept creeping up is the title of this post, CONTROL. I have worked this step for the last 5 months and incorporated into my life. I believe that if we are not able or not willing to do this, we are not ready to read the step and move on. For me the steps are all about personal growth and moving forward. I lost myself in the summer relationship for many reasons, and none of them matter anymore. I was able to objectively look at  and work on them. Ron always tells me this two word phrase that until recently only started to understand. LET GO, very fitting and something I am working on.

Letting go of things you can't or shouldn't be trying to control only frees up your energy. It has been my experience that when you try to control a situation, it never ends up working out for you. Some lessons I have to learn and re-learn, this is one of them. I have struggled with this issue my entire life and only after about getting half way through reading my step did I realize this. The light bulb went off and I realize now that it is the basis of many of my problems I have today. CONTROL, you see I am not in control at all when I am trying to control things. Feels good to have learned this lesson and even better to make a commitment to myself to work on it.  What is the point of learning about a character defect and not do anything about it. Non growth is not an option for me anymore!

I want to thank you for taking time out of your busy lives and reading a bit about mine. Here are some pics from this weekend.




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