I was in New York for awhile. One morning I was sitting in the hotel mezzanine upstairs and overheard the following between the man at the front desk and his friend (both from Russia or the Balkans or some place Slavic). HOW you are? boomed the first, big loudness on “how.” I loved the mixed-up syntax. They talked for a time, and then this floated up, capturing my attention again….Well, you know, every day at a time…..which I took to be a sort-0f translation of the 12 step motto….one day at a time. It made me laugh, this version of it, and it made me pause and remember that I can’t control anything, only myself, and sometimes not even that, and that I’m not in charge of the world, and that things happen, things I like and things I don’t, and my job is to keep my eyes on me and keep faith of some kind and get through this day the best I can, this day, not tomorrow, and if I best-I-can enough, most days will meld together to compose a life that has more joy than sorrow, but I don’t get one without the other….that old Kahlil Gibran wisdom….and could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy./And you would accept the seasons of your heart, 
even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields./And you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief.…..
Every day at a time….how you are?
Karleen Koen — writing life 