"The harder you work the luckier you get" Gary Player
One of the blessings of being in recovery for over 27 years is that I get to take frequent vacations. And, of course, the reason for that is that I work - sometimes six days a week - and often deal with people who are emotionally difficult, which requires that I decompress as frequently as possible.
So tomorrow I meet family and friends in Imperial Beach in Southern California, right between San Diego and Tijuana. And this year there'll be 24 of us in all because my business partner and some of his children and grandchildren are joining us. It's a tradition that's been going on since 1995 when my now 18-year-old grandchildren were still toddlers and we only required one unit for all of us. This year, we have seven units, which makes for quite a crowd when we all get together to eat.
The only reason I enjoy the lifestyle I do today is because I got sober over 27 years ago. Often, clients and coworkers will tell me how lucky I am. And they're right. I am lucky. But there's also more to it than luck.
My luck comes from two things: my sobriety and the fact that I get up and go to work nearly every day of the month. I do take Sundays off, but it's rare that our brains are really ever off duty when we're in the recovery business. So it's kind of like we're working all the time.
Vacations remind me that the most important thing is the people around us, those we love. And when we get a chance to vacation together we refresh our relationships and catch up on what everyone's been doing since the last time we saw them.
