| Repetition
The word repetition has been on my mind of late. Each morning during the work week, I get up early, make the coffee, spend some time planning my day, clean up the kitchen if necessary, make lunch for Elsa, let the cat out, Pray, read something from recovery, wake Elsa up for work, pull her car out of the garage and warm it up, clean it out if necessary and then sit down to pick up a book with my coffee and smoke a cigarette or three before I shower and go to work myself. On those days I think about it, I feel a sense of accomplishment; a simple good feeling of being a part of something greater than myself. This is a series of repetitious actions that reward both Elsa and me daily.
In my old life, the only repetitious behaviors I stuck to were those associated with remaining oblivious to all manner of life except for that which led to the next drink. I didn't think of you, unless it had to do with something I wanted from you.
As a younger man, I styled myself as a rebel, a nonconformist, before Alcoholism gave me the chance to chain myself as a self made slave. So, repetition only returned when I made the decision to live like other men again. Now those repetitious acts are called personal responsibility and today I am more responsible than at any time in my live. What is exceedingly different though is this, I enjoy the routine of responsibility. I am a part of the world today, no longer a slave or someone watching life go by.
This is what life is about; repetition. Bill paying is another repetitious act; god forbid paying a bill when I was drinking. Today, I actually have credit. Why, because I pay my bills on time. It’s just that simple. Repetition; so important in this New Life to me. Best to all.
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"It is what you learn after you know it all that counts." John Wooden
Excerpts from Original Manuscript of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous
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