Just how do I sneak back in here to greet personally once again these Peeps who I have dearly missed for a month? Jump right in, I suppose...
A lonely sound, shrillingly accurate, silenced the bedlam-like cacophony of the symphony orchestra. An oboe player had stuck his face on the thin reed, and produced a perfect 440 "A". The pitch is one to which orchestra players have for many years tuned their instruments, matching the oboe note. The oboe is awarded this honor because it's tone can pierce even the most noisy of environs.
And it was in this setting in which I found myself all day Wednesday, and will be involved in over the course of the weekend. I play a violin, and all my life I have listened thousands of times to the oboe player doling out his "a" to the string and wind orchestral musicians.
I have been retired from active orchestra playing for a couple years, but get called periodically to play (it's really work, do not know WHY they call it "play".)
Fraternizing with musicians--old friends and new--and the sheer enjoyment of being "back in the saddle" is one joy usually reserved for sports teams, music makers of all types, some congregations, and recovery meetings. I felt like saying to myself, "I am home again!"
I am!
It is the same I feel when I step into a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous--"I am home again...welcome home". Most societies are built around a nucleus of helping others, sharing talents, goods, and services. So when I say to myself in the morning AA meetings "Welcome Home", I refer to being at one with others, being of like mind.
It is a mostly comfortable feeling--true--and one which has changed my life totally. It is the "trying to practice" a set of principles, a way of life. In music it is practicing my violin. At work it is practicing diligence and faithfulness...and tolerance. It is not perfect. It is practicing restraint of pen and tongue during every waking moment, at home and away. It is practicing the Golden rule. Again, it is never perfect--or even close!
And so this week we are performing Gounod's "Romeo and Juliet", and selected parts of Bernstein's "West Side Story". And I LOVE it!
And I thank my God and AA for allowing me to stay alive...and to stay sober--for today.
A Special note to those blogger-friends who have been so patient with me (on-and-off-and-on-and-off-again!). I am so VERY grateful for your kindnesses and loving understanding and support, I am literally without words--another miracle? I have missed this blogging "home-away-from-home" for far too long.
From now I intend to blog when inspiration or "my will" (Ha!) demands instead of committing to a daily excercise, which became a job for me. And, being a recovering alcoholic, I have to be ME always, and no matter the topic, somehow it will relate to recovery of some sort, because that IS me.
Blogger-Peeps, I thank you all, and LOVE YOU ALL!
