Hi everyone, I was just writing to a friend and this came up. Wanted to share my day with you but don't have enough time to sit and write all so, sorry for the cut and paste…Love you all and hope you are all doing well.

It was a beautiful  day here in Northern California. The sun was shining, just a hint of wind, and the farm smells like the freshly rototilled soil that is finally taking the shape of rows. Soon we will plant cotton, an early and short statured variety so the kids can really see it. Ironstone Vineyards is coming in June to plant our vineyard which will attract even more of the finches and robins. Found a robin egg today, somebody had a birthday recently. While feeding my turtles, I looked into the moat to find the mother and father duck and their 6 remaining ducklings paddling around happily through the winters muck and mess. Soon it too will be sparkling clean and fresh. I watched them take their 1st swim last week. Mama marched down the steep 45 degree concrete sides on her big webbed feet into the water. One by one, each little duck took a step and end over teakettle they went, tumbling, rolling, bouncing and finally splashing into the water. Amazing the sacrifices for survival these wee ones make even on their first few days. Sure to have been a few bumps on the noggin. Why didn't the last one say, "Hmmm, wait a minute. I don't think I'll do that". Instinct, love, survival, the need to follow, don't know which or all but how many of us are that committed to our course. I know I sure banged up my head many of times and still went right on bouncing down that hill. I thank God that my life is as it should be at this moment in time. I have no fear, regrets are not too heavy, and most of all I have hope. Maybe that's what keeps those little duckies going. Hoping that the pain is worth that swim. In alot of ways, I think I am a better person than I might have been without going through the dark razor slashes of addiction. I don't know that many people actually look for a reason to analyze themselves and their life in such microscopic detail as we have found. I do know that we are all special in that we submitted and admitted defeat and our powerlessness. In that, we learned also about our powerlessness in many other areas of our lives. We were grateful for our lives which we had so casually flaunted into the shadow and quagmire of death. And once awakening, we cling to life in the hopes that there will be a promise kept and a new, and better life ahead of us.

Dang, don't know where that came from….

Peace and Love, Demi