Thirsty?

Today I am grateful for time off from work and nice weather to do some yard work. I am also grateful for those who helped bring my simple breakfast of cereal, milk, flax seed, and banana to me.

I have numerous blog drafts that I have started in recent months. I will hear or read a quote and think it makes a good post topic, and then other ideas come up and more drafts happen. Some get finished and published. Others languish in the "drafts" folder for a time.

In the next weeks, I am going to give some time to these drafts and bring them to fruition. Here's a good one to start with. It is inspired by this quote from Br. David Steindl-Rast:

"Gratefulness is that fullness of life for which we are all thirsting." 

These words evoke thoughts of what it meant to be a thirsty alcoholic. There were times when I was physically thirsty for a cold drink, but it was usually emotional thirst that I drank at. And that is an exercise in futility. The empty promises of alcohol, and the isolation created, never quenched my thirst. In fact, they often made me thirstier.

Those of you who already know my story also know that a turning point in my recovery from alcoholism and a key practice in my ongoing sobriety is the practice of gratitude. Living gratefully in this infinite succession of moments that make up a day. Finding gratefulness whenever I pause and pay attention. 

These feed my soul and satisfy my thirst for living fully. Gratefulness is far more effective than alcohol ever was. The side effects of living gratefully are healthy. The side effects of drinking too much alcohol were anything but healthy to my body and the rest of me.

I am grateful I have healthy ways to quench my thirst today.