Gezhundheit!

I've been blessed by my dear friend R from Discovering Recovering in a fun new meme. Yell at me if you want to, you meme scrooges...this one is nice, and I'm blessing you whether or not you like it!

Here's the rules:

It’s a game of tag with a difference, rather than looking inwardly, we look outside ourselves and bless, praise and pray for one blog friend. By participating in this endeavour we not only make the recipient of the blessing feel valued and appreciated, but we are having some fun too. We’re going to see how far the bloggin’ blessings can travel around the world and how many people can be blessed! Recipients of a bloggin’ blessing may upload the above image to their sidebar if they choose to. If you recieve a bloggin’ blessin’ please leave a comment on this thread here so that we can rejoice in just how many blessings have been sent around the world!

So now, to my blessings:

I bless Wayward Son for always being such a breath of fresh air. We started blogging around the same time, so I kind of feel like we've blog-matured together. It's been an honor to watch his growth over the last year, and I'm glad to have had him around watching mine. Bless you, Wayward Son!

Everybody knows that Long Vowels is my real life BFF, but I just want to reiterate for anyone who might have missed it: I <3 Long Vowels. Bless you, V!

And finally, I want to bless my Cuntface Committee. You guys kick ass, individually and collectively. You are more than my imaginary friends, more than the slut committee with whom I act all saditty...you guys are a fucking force. I think I'll let Fabolous ride out on this one:

I'm a movement by myself,
But I'm a force when we're together...

CFBFF08BrooklynWizardSleeves

Tag!

I think I've played this meme game before, but these things tend to go around and around the blogosphere. I got tagged this time by Recovery Reconnaissance, and it's the list five things about you game. I suppose folks want to know more than that I am married to a junky, so here are five random facts about me:

1. For lunch, I just ate a box of Pocky, given to me by my BFF. They were the chocolatey almondy kind. I enjoy Pocky.

2. I am reading American Psycho presently. It wasn't the best book for the Christmas spirit, but I like it so far. I just learned the word, "gorno," which I think describes it aptly.

3. I am trying to drink more water. It's kind of a New Year's goal. I have decided that more water will cure about 65% of my problems.

4. My other New Year's resolution is to do more yoga. Lots and lots of yoga. Yoga is going to cure the problems that water can't reach.

5. I don't want my house to be so dirty anymore. There's animal mess and people mess always everywhere, and I want it to be better. I think I wouldn't always feel so overwhelmed if the house weren't always so gross. I'm going to try really, really hard to keep it a little cleaner.

Now I'm supposed to tag folks, but the last time I tagged folks, they yelled at me. So I'm not tagging anyone..I'm tagging everyone. If you are reading this and feel inclined, then post your own 5 random facts.

Recovery Meme.

My own Scout Potato tagged me in a recovery meme, and I thought playing might make my mood a little less funky. So here goes!

Here's the rules:

• Link to the person’s blog who tagged you.
• Post these rules on your blog.
• List seven things you're grateful to have learned in recovery.
• Tag seven people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
• Let each person know that they have been tagged by posting a comment on their blog.

1. I'm grateful to have a relationship with a higher power now. God stuff is all new for me...or this kind of personal relationship with a higher power is new for me. Like most folks, I'd though a lot about the nature of the universe, the purpose of living, the origin of things and all that...but I'd never, at least not since I was a child, had a relationship with a higher power. Now I do. I talk every day to something, somebody, some warm presence that's been looking out for me always, but that I've really felt in the last year when I've been going through the hardest time in my life. I am grateful to have that connection and that wonderful source of comfort.

2. I am grateful for the concept of powerlessness. It drives me crazy sometimes just how powerless I am...it is hard to accept that there is nothing in my life I've wanted more than I've wanted for my husband to be the kind of man that I can grow old with, and that he either will or won't be and that there's not a damned thing I can do about it. But, it's something I'd never even considered before my first Nar-Anon meeting. I'd never even imagined that him getting better or not could be something that wasn't my business. Reading the text of the first step on that first night was like having a yoke lifted off of me. I don't have to fix it. It pisses me off that I can't fix it, but it is a relief that I don't have to.

3. I'm grateful for the people I've met in my meetings and the relationships that have developed. I've got some real friends that have come from my group, and they are people who understand and accept me through and through.

4. I'm glad to have the concept of putting myself first. I'm not always so good at doing it, but I'm glad to have been granted permission to have self-care as a goal.

5. I'm grateful to have become more willing to reach out to people. When I'm hurting or when I'm happy or when I just feel like it, I've gotten much better at sharing that with other folks. I'd learned through a long series of messy relationships that it wasn't fair to put yourself or your problems on someone else...and that misperception of what you accomplish through sharing has been cleared up through recovery. Asking for help, sharing your joy, talking things through--these are normal, healthy, human urges, and I'm glad to have them in my arsenal of survival skills.

6. I'm glad that I'm learning, slowly and surely, but mostly slowly, to take my life as it comes, one day at a time. I'm in the place I'm in for a reason, and I have a higher power that has a plan for me. When I am able to remember these things, when I'm able to enjoy a good day just for itself and to suffer through a bad day as one increment of my life that had a beginning and will have an end, I am more successful at living. It's the hardest part of recovery for me, but when it works, it really works.

7. I'm grateful for becoming more self-aware. Countless times throughout any given day, I use my tools. My whole approach to living is saner, safer. I now know better what my strengths and weaknesses are, and I know how to navigate through life better because I know these things.

So now I'm tagging folks. I only got 5. Whatever.

1. Alcoholic Diary
2. Discovering Recovering
3. Woman Anonymous
4. Stay At Home Motherdom
5. A Room Of Mama's Own

Double Shot Of Courage

Break out the champagne (or the sparkling grape juice for my alcoholic friends in recovery), the hankies, and the "world peace" speeches!

I've been doubly gifted with a Courageous Blogger Award, and I'm honored. I also like the versatility of this award, so I am going to branch out from my incestuous awarding of prizes to the same MPJ and Long Vowels to include some other folks.

Well, maybe it'll still be incestuous, but that's ok.

I received my two Courageous Blogger Awards from the incomparable Ev Nucci at My Life Is Murphy's Law and my new friend Honeybell from The Bell Pages. I'm passing my awards along (drumroll) to:



I will be giving out 2 Thoughtful Blogger Awards.

My dear friend Question Air will receive the Thoughtful Blogger Award for her brand new blog. It's a thoughtful blog, I think, for various reasons:

1. She has a political conscience (stupid hippy!).
2. She is asking questions and interacting with her audience and respecting her audience's opinions.
3. She started the blog because I was bothering her because I think everyone of my writer friends should have a blog now that I do. That's a thoughtful thing to do, obeying my mandates.

Another newer and yet equally dear friend E. of Behind Pinned Eyes has been amazingly thoughtful. From loaning me a laptop after mine was stolen to keeping in touch and checking in with me when I take a rare break from blogging, he's become a real friend. Also, his blog is pretty interesting for those of us in the recovery world, and also for those of us outside of it. Go check him out!



I'm going to give the Courageous Blogger Award to three folks, who I have come to think of as my blog sisters.

Mantramine, Married To My Ex, and Married To An Addict are all struggling through the same experiences that I'm struggling through, and it's amazing to share with them, read their experiences, and grow from one another's day to day accounts of what it's like living with an addict. It takes guts to stick around, and it takes guts to write about what it's like sticking around. I'm proud of us for being strong, interesting, creative women, and I hope you guys wear your badges with pride!



And I'm going to cheat a little to give out two more awards, the Inspirational Blogger Award. Since I got tagged twice with the courageous one, I figure I can give out a couple extra...fuck the system!

So the first goes to Scout, and see, you didn't even have to whine to get this one! You can always count on Scout to give you a loving comment, and if you visit her blog, she is endlessly thoughtful, strong, and generally wonderful. She also inspires the most interesting ire in people who become jealous of her incursions on our blog romances, from my blog BFF Long Vowels' rage against her warm comments to my own outrage at her advances towards my darling MPJ. Scout is everyone's favorite inspirational blog-ho! Hah!

And finally, I'm giving an inspirational prize to Stay At Home Motherdom. Like Scout's blog, you can count on this one to be full of hope and inspiration, and it's a great place to visit for that good old ESH.



You can find the rules for how to pass it on here.