React.

I'm all over the place.


"Are you talking again?" said my sponsor, putting his arm around my shoulder in a reassuring fashion.  Either that or he was getting ready to break my neck, which I probably deserved at the time.  "Haven't I taught you anything? Do yourself a big favor and try not to talk today."


We pause when agitated.  In my case the advice is to pause when awake.  Then extend that pause for the rest of my life.  If I compare the number of times in my life when I shouldn't have said anything but did anyway to the number of times when I should have said something but didn't, the ratio is like a billion to one.  Still, my tendency is to REACT.  I know everything.  I know what's best for you and if you would only SHUT UP FOR A MINUTE then I could straighten you out.  Hang on a second while I get a pen and paper from the box I'm living in temporarily.


I knew a guy once who was homeless for a while.  He lived in a box in some woods near the river.  "I had a condo with a pool," he'd tell people.  I heard another guy share that he got kicked out of a detox center once wearing one tennis shoe.  Where the other one was he had not a clue.  He took off walking . .  in the winter. . . in the snow.  Somebody took pity on him and gave him a cowboy boot for his unshod foot.  His mood brightened and his resolve to stay sober melted in the summer sun.  "This isn't too bad," he thought, deciding to drink again.


During the holidays be careful not to let family and friends push your buttons.  Me, I'm all buttons.  Everything is a button.  I'm one huge red button marked with these instructions: "Push Here!"


It's just another day.  Everything is going to be OK.