In a recent online meeting, the almost unanimous choice of topic was fear and anxiety. We were all feeling it in one way or another. We started with a reading from Courage to Change, January 10. It talks about “mental static” of worry, and then says “I'm learning to focus all my attention on this very moment.”

Members on the call expressed different fears that they were experiencing, and different sources of anxiety. Of course, the corona virus situation is present for all of us, on top of whatever is going on in our individual lives. And we are each meeting our anxiety in different ways.

We who are in recovery have spent, in some cases, years developing the ability to “let go and let God”; to focus on the present moment; to put “first things first”; to know that we need only “do the next right thing”; and to find gratitude in the midst of chaos and uncertainty. I can take a moment to appreciate the beauty of the natural world, and for that to lift me, however briefly, from my fears.

This short episode was recorded on my phone, sitting in my car outside my parents' house. The photo above is a view from their property.