Welcome to the Jim Boylan Cafeteria Of Life.
I can not and will not tell you how to live your life. I can only describe how I have come from a life of pain and misery into a life being Happy, Joyous, and Free. And in this cafeteria, you are free to choose what you wish to take. And just leave the rest. No high-pressure sales pitch.
I am a very active person in this life. And, since I have retired, I have been in a position to be able to work whenever I want, or not. I can do service work whenever I want, or not.
Since leaving the workforce, although not wealthy, I can do pretty much whatever and whenever I wish in life. When we had our Montana 5th wheel RV, we were on the road for over half of the year, both for work and pleasure.
It has been several years since we parted ways with our 5th wheel and we have traveled a couple of times to warmer climes since then in the winter. But not in the last couple of years. It seems like there is so much around home to keep us both occupied. Life keeps on coming at us.
The pandemic had us, along with the rest of the state in a state of “house arrest” for a year and a half. This limited any excursions to doctors’ visits, grocery shopping, and the Flint St. Andrews Soup Kitchen. And I was a member of the Flint Life Enrichment Center Stream Team Sundays during their Live Streaming Telecasts of the services.
I am blessed in this life to have a healthy, fit 80+-year-old body that is accompanied by a mind that does not know age. I am not physically as strong as I was earlier in my life and maybe a little slower in my actions but my mind is as active as it ever was. And maybe even more so, in fact.
God keeps putting people in my life that I want to be around and, more important to me, want me around them. Whodathunk that this ole drunk has not had a drink or drug in 45+ years. For sure not many that knew me “back in the day.”
I have a wife and five children and nine grandchildren and four great-grandchildren who have never seen me take a drink and they love me. I have two children who were around when I was in the mad life and today they both love me.
Today, I am Happy, Joyous, and Free. Living and loving my life and all around me.
Recently, I had a good friend who also has not had a drink in over 40 years approach me and tell me to slow down. He said that he was going to cut back on his service work because he didn’t want to shorten his life anymore by the stress. And that I really should too.
I thanked him for the concern and we both went our separate ways. I remembered Reverend Stephanie Sorensen telling me several years ago that I was a Spiritual Being. Living in a Spiritual Universe. One that is governed by Spiritual Law. And one with all that exists.
As a Spiritual Being, I am only limited in this life by what my mind tells me. And not anything else.
Therefore, I will remain in this state of mind by doing whatever I can with whatever I am blessed to work or deal with. This includes my family. My friends. Others in the AA Program. People from Flint’s oppressively poor, violent East Side who have become part of my extended family at the St Andrews Soup Kitchen. The wonderful people I am meeting through my writing. And, if someone was mistakenly left off this list, just please feel free to join as an important part of my extended family.
Thank you, God!