Over the past many years (77 to be exact), life has presented me with recurring experiences that I have come to distill into simple, short mantras. Awareness of their underlying meaning has, for me, made THE significant difference in living. Especially living on Life’s terms. This has been a journey of 44+ years with one of the earliest realizations that this is truly about the journey, not the destination. Because frankly, we all have the same destination, cessation of the physical body. Death. I am not someone who found spirit through religion. Only when I looked outside of my prejudices toward religion did the pathway open. Since early youth, the GOD of religion, that old guy with the flowing beard and multiple lists of dos and don’ts, just didn’t feel right. I knew there was something that held all of this life stuff together, but I was too focused on being young and feeling immortal to worry about it. That all changed at the year marker 33. I came face-to-face with reality. A face in the mirror, bloated, bloodshot eyes, hungover, apart from family and friends. A drunk and one who repeatedly swore this would never happen again. But it did, and it did, and it did. There are times in our lives when we are presented with major crossroads. The path we choose and the actions we take create the experiences we call life. My early youthful experiences were within the limits of normal. As normal as being an only child in a military family who moved a lot, lived in foreign countries, and had his first taste of German beer at 13. Thus, at 33, I arrived at a MAJOR crossroad. Get sober or jump back into the abyss. The decision to get sober ( which rapidly became the acronym for Son Of Bitch Everything’s Real) opened the inner quest for wanting and being willing to know this GOD. The doors of AA were open, and a friend walked me through them. What I felt from that first-ever meeting was that the GOD of my understanding in AA parlance was going to be found here. That feeling was spot on, and the pathway was lit for further discovery. The fact for me was the discovery led into the recesses of my inner beingness and not about external stuff. AA suggested that I not take the first drink, keep an open mind as best I could, and be of service to someone else. The message was simple and exactly what I was willing to accept. The journey to grow up had started.

In continuing this journey of self-discovery, I’m willing to take the time and make the effort to put meat on the bones of these fundamental awarenesses. The following are the reminder keys that level out the pathway when times are rocky and enhance the beauty when times are good.

• Inches and Seconds
• Connecting the Dots
• Just in Time or Just in Case
• Self-help: What an oxymoron
• Always have a big plan B
• What is the L.O.G. ( Lesson Opportunity Gift) in what is happening