technology

When I first started this blog, I had the high-paying owns-your-life kind of job, and if I recall correctly, my first Blackberry. I really, really like new technology, but I do tend to be just a tad behind the 8 ball in catching on - there were MANY already addicted to their Blackberries before I was just getting my first. But I loved having access to my email from my pocket! Now, couple of years later, couple of phones later, not only is my email in my pocket, but so is all the internet, you tube, my blog, any book I feel like getting on amazon, the library of Congress if I want ... all in my pocket and on my phone! Crazy, amazing and very entertaining. I love that I can actually do my blog from my phone. And I can read books on my phone. And I can price check items on my phone, and purchase the same item from another store that has it cheaper while still standing in the first store, on my phone. I wonder if there is an app that could send me to the moon... or someone else that I'm not too particularly fond of... I bet there is.

Anyway, so so so many other things have also changed too... it is amazing to me what technology brings to my life. Gone are the days when I have to be at my TV at a particular day or time to watch a show! Gone are the days of watching commercials unless I specifically want to. Gone are the days of having to wait until summer to find a repeat if you miss a show - I can just catch it online! In fact, gone are repeats in the summer at all for that matter! And life without caller ID?!?! I barely remember that.

But it's cool to me to look at how technology has affected my recovery. Blogs, online/email meetings, documents/study guides online, speakers online, twelve step Twitter, a Big Book on my kindle, Skype meetings... the list just goes on and on! But I have to avail myself to those things and be willing to try them and use them, because for every cool thing that can enhance my recovery, there's probably ten or more that will take away from it. Most importantly for me, I think, is to keep my recovery ever-evolving, just like technology is ever-evolving... just like my disease is ever-evolving! I have to keep things interesting, because I have a tendency to lose interest and wander away.

I'm reminded of the saying I've heard many times, which is something along the lines of, that which we focus on gets bigger. This is really shockingly true. If I focus on recovery-related things, I feel grounded and at peace. When I focus on the things that make me crazy and drive me nuts, it seems like that's all I have in my life. Today, I think I could use more of the former than the latter.

So I apologize if there are typos or if this doesn't flow so well... I'm typing on a 2x4 inch touch-screen and have been in a different area of my house pretty much for each paragraph I've written! But if it weren't for this fancy schmancy phone, I probably wouldn't have written at all today. Hats off to the technology!

new look!

Gosh, I can't believe that it's been almost a year since I've posted anything. I don't know where I've been ... I don't feel like a whole lot has changed, but obviously writing has become a relatively small part of my life these days. So small, in fact, that it essentially has no part at all. I guess that's really how people leave program - just like we recover - one day at a time. Not that I've left program, because I most definitely have not, but I can guarantee that when I wrote my last post nearly a year ago, I didn't think it was going to be the last one for a year, nor did I make a decision at any point in time in the last year that I simply wasn't going to write anymore. I just didn't write. And I'm sure that people leave program all the time, never intending that last meeting to be the last. It makes me wonder though ... what else doesn't exist in my life today that I don't even realize doesn't exist? Makes me pause for thought, that's for sure!

So I come here and there's all these new things that have been added - new backgrounds available, etc., and I thought I'd try a few out. And then I started looking through many of the old blogs I used to read regularly - some are kept up, some are as old as mine. And then I start exploring links to links to links to links, and it occurs to me ... THAT Is probably why I stopped writing a year ago! I sure can get lost in reading blogs and posting on this one. I seem to have a profound inability to remain focused these days.

But I am here, and working on getting back to the writing ... more to come, hopefully.