While visiting my four-year-old grandson the other day I realized how much we can learn from children.
And my observation stems from my connection with Alcoholics Anonymous and the other 12-step programs where we're taught to live one day at a time. In these programs, we're taught to live our lives in 24-hour segments.
The idea behind that is that most anyone who's not using can make it through the next 24 hours without picking up a drink or drug. In my own case breaking my life down into day-at-a-time segments made staying sober much easier.
As to my grandson, he uses every moment of every day getting into something. He leaves behind him a trail of toy trains, scraps of food, discarded clothing, and tears when he gets admonished for making too big of a mess.
Yet a few moments later his tears are dry and he's off to get into some other kind of mischief. He stays involved to the fullest in each moment of his life. It's only after children are older that we force them to begin unlearning the idea of living in the moment and try to impose a more orderly way of life upon them. They unlearn some bad habits, but in the process, some forget how to play and enjoy the moment.
This is a mixed blessing. Of course, we can't spend our lives simply being spontaneous and playing. But we could at least retain some balance in our lives by remembering that life doesn't always have to be a grind where we're working hard to acquire the next best thing.
And for the those of us in recovery, the idea of living in today makes it easier to walk through anything that might challenge our sobriety.
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