Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and All That Jazz!

Well, hello world. Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays. Happy New Year. Whatever it is or isn't that you might celebrate this time of year, I do hope that this finds you with some peace of mind, some serenity, and some confidence coming into 2026. This will be pretty brief, I think. I say that, but we all know that's usually not true. And the past few readings that I've done have been about how grateful people in recovery can be for the fact that it took something so terrible in order for you to find this space. A solution and a new way to live. And this is kind of about that example. So, tomorrow, I'll get up really early and go over to my ex-wife's house. And the four of us, her, myself, and the two daughters will open gifts and spend it as a family. Which is fantastic. It feels really good to be able to do that after having gone through something that was pretty difficult with a separation and a divorce. But there's still a lot of love there. And we'll always be a family. And that is a recognition that I didn't have before I came in. So, we'll go over. We'll start the day together. And then the daughters will hop in the car with me, as well as my partner. And girlfriend, Mandy. And we will drive out to Colorado. We do this every single year on Christmas Day. The girls, and it used to be the four of us. Now, it's a new four of us. Drive out. We go to my dad's in Fort Collins. And then we like to head up to some mountain and do some skiing. Now, there's this really incredible mom-and-pop ski hill called Snowy Range. And it is right outside of Centennial. Centennial, Wyoming. It's about an hour and a half north of Fort Collins. And it's a really quaint and wonderful little place. Five lifts. No gondolas. Nothing high speed. No, like, double blacks. No big booters you're going to hit massive jumps off of. I mean, it's just a place where you can still relatively inexpensive to come and ski and spend some time. There's no resort. There's a lot. You know, where you can bring up your, you know, your cooler and some sandwiches. And they've got a little cafeteria. They've got rentals and that. But it really is a very low-key kind of chill vibe sort of place. And my daughters and I have spent a lot of time there over the past 15 years or so. And when I asked them where they wanted to ski this year, that is where they said they'd like to go. Which is pretty incredible. You know, because there's lots of choices. And they chose Snowy. You know, I'm just so fortunate for these types of opportunities. Because, and this is what we've been talking about lately. It's a vivid reminder to me that the road that I was on before I came in was one of absolute disaster. I would absolutely be dead. Or in prison. Or in an institution. If I would not have gotten sober. So none of this, none of this life I lead today would exist or probably even be possible. This, this was a day that used to be about getting presents. And today it is about being present. I've, I've. The joy that fills me to be able to watch and have watched my daughters grow into these strong, determined young women. To spend a whole day in a car, listening to them talk, laugh, and share their own visions for what they want their future to be. Not what I want it to be. What they want it to be. That is a perspective that I didn't have. Fills me with gratitude. You know. Even in sobriety, it has not always been like this. You know, I have faced and they have faced numerous challenges. Where it at one point felt like my relationship with my oldest daughter was very tenuous. But instead of giving up, we took action and we kept working on it. We had to go to a professional listener or a therapist if you want to be. You know, explicit about it. And it's been fantastic. Neither of us would admit, or actually we would admit, but neither of us really wanted to be there at first. But it's been a wonderful place for us to come together and to be open and honest and share. Maybe you don't need to do that. We need you to do that. Again, I'm grateful and thankful that we have the resources to be able to go to someone and pay them money to listen to us and help us with our lives. Mike told me, Ben, you need to pick the longest line in the grocery store and that's the one you're going to go to when you check out. And I remember thinking, that sounds terrible. But it was a means of actually practicing patience, deliberately practicing patience. Again, I didn't want to do it, but when I get uncomfortable, there's growth. You know, these are skills and things that we can learn if we can practice. But none of this did I know. I didn't really know this. Or at least, I hadn't paid attention until it got terrible enough to start paying attention. Just so incredibly grateful for the chance to find a way. A way to live, a program for living, some directions and suggestions that if I can humble myself enough on a regular basis and try some things, the outcome is always beyond what I had expected. So to all of you out there, maybe it feels to you that it's impossible to live. Maybe it feels to you that it's impossible to change. But you can. Don't give up. Just don't. Peace.