Heat Exchage

June 29

HEAT EXCHANGE

I stand in the shower and let the water run.  The water carries away my temperature in exchange for its own.  I leave the enclosure restored.  Mentally, a meeting does this for me.  I change hot topics for more moderate positions, cold indifference for warm regard.  Stepping into a group of my fellows carts off my excess ego and flushes my pride.  Isolation is taken and camaraderie left in its place.  I am always changed by standing amid the rush of sober minds and faithful service.  Balance comes from proximity and willingness.  Everything is reduced to letting myself get wet.

Measure your growth on a doorpost.

*

Exercising Futility

Asking the confused for explanation

is like asking a blind man the color of the sea.

It isn’t that he couldn’t tell you,

but how could you be sure?

To exercise futility is more than just a game

or the words to a song

your mother sings when lost or far away.

To take the fish out of water

and train it on a bike is meaner than I need to be,

but isn’t it my right?

Just to do things because they can be done

or try them because they can’t

is more the worse for everyday a tragedy in pants.

Puzzle out the little things and practice when you can,

for putting on the frazzled mind

is cruel to the poor sweet-hearted sot.

You are reading selections from Sober on the Way to Sane and More Lines From My Life by Sherrie Theriault

http://www.amazon.com/Sober-On-The-Way-Sane/dp/1440417342/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1388576888&sr=8-1&keywords=sober+on+the+way+to+sane

http://www.amazon.com/More-Lines-From-My-Life/dp/1448677203/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1388576956&sr=8-1&keywords=More+Lines+From+My+Life

Exercising Futility

July 1

Exercising Futility

Asking the confused for explanation is like asking a blind man the color of the sea.  It isn’t that he couldn’t tell you, but how could you be sure?  To exercise futility is more than just a game or the words to a song your mother sings when lost or far away.  To take the fish out of water and train it on a bike is meaner than I need to be, but isn’t it my right?  Just to do things because they can be done or try them because they can’t is more the worse for everyday a tragedy in pants.  Puzzle out the little things and practice when you can, for putting on the frazzled mind is cruel to the poor sweet-hearted sot.

Don’t get hooked by excuses

*

SPONTANEOUS GENERATION

Dust under the bed turns into bugs

My grandfather believed in these alchemies of myth.

I thought myself free from the small witchcrafts of threat.

The longer I stay sober,

The more real is the insidious nature of my disease

Mental clutter does breed all manner of

Squirming and chattering vermin.

Every intellectual closet I leave uncleaned

Is a brooding box of contempt,

False pride and bloated ego.

The synchronism of hatchling defects and nursing grudges

Fairytale thinking and firebrand action

Mimic grandpa’s bedbug rantings.

I can never turn my back on unswept philosophy

Or the dross of assumptions I’ve left waiting in piles.

Spiritual house cleaning is all that saves me

From the transmigration of blood sucking life draining phantasm.

Supernatural transformations needn’t plague me if I take right action

The difference between blessings and curses

Is the direction in which you are going.