Hon I think we all get stagnent sometimes.

My experience is this, I volunteered at a shelter. My non blood daughter went to work at Goodwill and loved it.They like to hire people like you.

 On Craigslist there are many shared homes, of many are rooms or a studio over a barn or something. Very affordable. Some people would love to have you live there since you like to be home. No one likes to leave their animals alone.

There are always options, always. Many, many places you have your own entrance, and your own everything.A person can bring in a hotplate, toaster oven, microwave etc. What else does one need? I love being frugal.

If you found a shared situation you could always love on their animals, and maybe have a dog or? of your own.

Sometimes we need someone to problem solve with, someone to stimulate our minds. I wish my place was much smaller. I only use the kitchen, dining area, hall bathroom and one bedroom. Like to tear it out and put a very small Mostly glass type home here. Open completely to the east to my mountain.

Goals help me. Someone did major damage to my home here. Left junk all over. I got it into big piles and now want it all taken away, goal.

need to rip out this stinky stupid carpet they put in. goal. I am working on my health, have lost weight and gone down 4 sizes want to go down maybe two more. My lifestyle will go where it goes. goal.

I read the Bible lots. I want to continue to get to know my HP the creator. goal. Making new friends. went to dinner at a neighbor friends house. goal be more sociable.

For me the progress I make thru al anon is what helps me to achieve my goals. I am a better person.Knowing how to difuse a bad situation, knowing when to walk away, Knowing A's are people with feelings too, they are not their disease. For me Love is always, always my guide. Sometimes it is tough love, but love just the same.

You have tons of potential. I hope you will feel motivated to make some goals.

I invite you to sit down with pen and paper and write down what you love, what you want. Then put lines from them to where you write how to acheive these goals.

Lets see what you do! (c:  love!

 Hi Neshema,

I had come in for lunch and was browsing the forum while my lunch cooked.  Actually I was going to pass all round. I had made a Sunday-style posting this morning, since it is Sunday already in New Zealand.

At this stage in Alanon I begin to enjoy the company a lot more. Since I already know the rules I do not need to get anxious about what, or what not to say in Alanon.

I spent some of the morning hauling in wood. Not for this year but for next. I really needed to back-up because I worked last week and have most of this coming week.

Sometimes as a treat I love to write 'a letter home' kind of letter. I can do this now. I cannot see the feet shuffling, nor the group chair looking sternly at her watch.

And of course I can share this with y'all.

As a kid I was a real goody-two shoes. In was only when I left home- and as they say you can take the kid ut of the home, but you can't take the home out of the kid. So Alanon has been about that for me, and a lot more.

My mum was real horsey. She came from a big family and they had a draught horse to ride around on. He liked to walk under the clothes line.

One day he went down onto the river. Mum never really found out the outcome until her latter years- from older sisters. Mum told us/me stories about her growing up and all that stuff. I don't know if she told the others, or whether they remembered because we don't talk.

Anyway mum grew up with Black Beauty and that English Liz Taylor movie 'National Velvet'.

I won't tell the whole story but mum got to rise in the Goldtown centennial in 1963 and she chose the English sidesaddle. In her latter years she bought the sidesaddle back into fashion, at least for a time.

So we got to grow up with horses and ponies- the environment I grew up in I would describe as 'organic'. Ah kin still smell the trees and the leaves.

In Alanon I was just so so regular. Sometimes I had to skip a couple of meetings, just to give myself [and the group] a bit of a break.

Horses for courses, sort of thing.

Lately it has been full on. I am GR at the moment and it has been full on. Today I have strength and confidence and more or less knew what I was doing.

It was good for me to give it that commitment, but looking forward I need also to back up a bit and let the group take on a life of its own.

I am not really talking here about the issues, because it is a group matter. Sometimes I have had to- just the same as how I had to open my mouth about family issues.

[We have the right to be wrong.] Progress not perfection.

But I needed just to back up this afternoon. To let the wood wait until next week. To do what i love doing- which is to write and to exercise my mind. And even more so, much more- to spend time, in some way, with other people.

Thanks Neshema, and all Alanon friends...:>) 

David.