The Game of Golf and the Game of Life

Today I am grateful for recovery support from people who understand me and how my alcoholic mind works.

I am also grateful for the opportunity to play nine holes of golf yesterday with my friend Kelly. It was hot, but we were saved by a breeze. I appreciate the low-key approach--we don't keep score and we don't take it too seriously.

Now there is a good lesson for both the game of golf and the game of life: Don't take yourself too seriously. If all I do is worry and wonder over what has happened and what might happen, I am most likely not enjoying, or even noticing, what IS happening.  If I take myself too seriously, I am not much fun to be around because I am most likely coming up short of my own expectations and I will be a little uptight about it.

Golf is more fun when I accept that I will have some bad shots with the good ones. Life is more fun when I accept that it won't always go my way. But gratitude helps me remember that many things do go my way each and every day. I can walk, talk, drive, work, eat. I have safe places to walk, people to share my words with, a car to drive, a job, and food to eat. Those aren't minor details, but I treat them as such when I take them for granted.

Don't take yourself too seriously, but do take the practice of gratitude seriously.


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