Another day and another new beginning. I was trying to think about the direction I would like to go with this writing project yesterday. When I started I thought it was good for me to wallow in the past and all that had happened and that writing about it would somehow speed up the healing process. So like most drunks in AA I spent everyday living in the past and counting up all of the bad things that had happened to me and believing that in dong so I would improve. Do not get me wrong, I am not trying to criticize AA, I am only saying that I think some people in and out of AA have the wrong idea about the whole..."an unexamined life is not worth living" idea.

   I have come to the conclusion that as we examine our life we must look at the past, but not in a negative manner. The fact that we can examine it is a positive attribute about our past. All of the things that happened are simply life lessons. The good, the bad, the happiness, the loss, the gain etc, are all sign posts and material we need on our journey. When I examine my life now I look at what I am carrying and discard those things that are weighing me down. Going through life with extra baggage is a waste of time. I no longer tally up the misery, or define myself by what has happened. I am what I am and not what anything, or anybody else has made me.

  My outlook is slowly changing. It is not a quick fix. Changing over fifty years of thinking habits requires discipline. Not the stringent discipline of a marathon runner, or professional athlete, but the temerity to keep at it even when you do not see immediate results. When you listen to highly successful and happy people talk they all seem to have the same common trait. Confidence and a firm belief that they will succeed even after repeated failures. When you look at the track records of an Edison, or Salk, or Bill Gates you find numerous setbacks and misses on their way to their goal. We have to be able to accept the fact that we will fail many times as we move forward, that many obstacles will block our path to our intended goal. We will never stay on the path if we leave it to go around hurdles. They must be overcome and we must keep going. We learn valuable lessons from each and every failure and obstacle that we encounter.

  Whether you are starting over because of a personal loss, medical reason, death of a loved one or many of the many life changing events that we face every day be confident about your ability. Have faith in whatever you believe in, God, the nebulous idea of the universe being in charge, or yourself. Whatever gets you through the journey embrace it. Each day is a new beginning, filled with promise and endless possibilities. None of the things that happen to you should be looked at as a negative event. Each thing that happens provides us with new knowledge and experience that help us mover forward, all of which are a good thing. I know they are good for me and I use them as I start over, over 50.