Hi Girly Girls.......my computer was down for several days so I was incommunicado...but it looks like I'm back up and running now.
Yes, I've been to a couple more Al Anon meetings. I actually like them. It's kind of interesting, the comments, I've heard.
My husband thinks they'll tell me "leave the bum" and my mother thinks that they'll tell me what to do and my mother in law thinks they'll counsel me on what I can do to help her son.
All wrong!
Amazingly enough, we don't talk about them (the drinker, user, spouse, whatever) - oh my gosh, for that hour or so, THEY don't get to be the focus of all our attention! Yayyy.
All they/we talk about is how to not let whatever that person, (be it spouse, child, relative or other close person) consume you and let their drama become your drama.
And that is one thing I felt like I really needed. Although I go on with my day-to-day jazz and I'm a very happy person all the time, I had this undercurrent of anger. Well I don't want to be angry all the time. I don't like it and there's plenty of things that can irritate me in any one day but I don't want to be angry when I wake up and then again when I come home.
The meetings are great at helping you become focused. No one can make good decisions when things are chaotic or even just unsettled. So it sort of helps restore the calm, in ME, so that I can make some sense of what I need to do. It's easy to get caught up in someone else's drama by trying to help when really, we can only step out of the way and let them learn their life lessons on their own. And in the meantime. ... I can walk the dog, or take a run, or do something artistic, or read, or give myself a manicure or go to the movies with a friend or chat on the phone, or garden or.....you get the idea. I can do anything I want to......to make MY life more beautiful.
So....that's all for now.

Kate