It's the end of my vacation. Tomorrow morning, we start driving back west, but we are stopping part of the way through to spend the night. I'm planning on posting some thoughts tomorrow night after having the day to look back on the whole week. Thank you all for giving me the space to get these thoughts out while I've been out here. I was definitely having a hard time at the beginning of the week. But just the simple act of admitting that I was feeling the stress of being here while holding my sobriety was extremely helpful. Getting these thoughts out every night helped me keep focused on being present for myself and my wife while on this trip. And being present helped me remain honest with myself about my journey in recovery.
I just want to share this quick story from today before I go to bed: This morning, I went to my mother's house to take a yoga instruction session from her in exchange for giving her some meditation instruction. As I have written about here several times, I have not always had the best relationship with my mother. But, I have decided that the most important thing for me to find some peace with this relationship is to simply forgive my mother, accept her for who she is, and live my life without holding on to resentment towards her. After we finished the yoga class, I gave a brief meditation instruction, and we sat together in meditation for a while. During this time, I was aware of a very deep feeling of peace and comfort around my mother. After meditating, we bowed to each other, sat and shared a pot of tea, and then I left to start getting ready for the trip home tomorrow. Later in the evening, we went to a local church festival to meet some friends and family, including my mother. Some friends of ours told us that they had a housewarming gift for us to take back to Colorado for our new home. We opened up the present, and it is a beautiful statue of the Buddha. I thought that was a perfect gift to come at the end of this very transformative week.